Cutting a niche for himself over the years in the Indian modern art scenario with his distinctly individual and seminal contribution, Lalu Prasad Shaw was born in a middle-class Bengali family in Suri exactly two years before the Second World War broke out. In his childhood days, he used to often visit ‘poto para’ a neighborhood of local artisans in their vicinity and watch them work, being drawn not to the idols they paint but more to the ‘pats’ and chaali-s’ they used to paint to adorn the backdrop of their idols. In Lalu’s words, “I am not an artist but a painter. I like to paint directly; so initially I look for the structure of a painting, then put up colors and in the last stage, I give the finishing touch.”
Lalu belongs to the generation of Indian artists which emerged in the sixties in the post-war socio-cultural and political background and which had firm moorings in the native soil. And like all the other young artists, he too was keen on hitting upon a painting style of his own, something which for him was not easy to accomplish and demands a long and dedicated engagement. He started his career with oil painting and mainly concentrated on still life along with experimentation with some organic forms.
He spent a less colorful life than that of a city-bred boy and was a little different from the lot. He could graphically replicate his immediate visual experience and thus could sensitively respond to the nuances of the goings on around him. In 1959, Lalu had his institutional training in art at the Government College of Art, Calcutta where students were taught what the curricula demanded – anatomy, perspectives, norms of chiaroscuro, techniques of British watercolour, academic portraiture in oil and so on. He graduated in 1959 but somehow, the completion of the course left him disillusioned and that is the reason why he tried to express himself beyond the limits of the institutional training. Lalu became a member of the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1967. For a few years, he devoted himself to graphic works in abstract form where he could incorporate the forms of his earlier sketches and drawings.
