Amitava (b.1947) lives and works in New Delhi. He graduated from the Delhi College of Art in 1972. Amitava has been strongly influenced by the existential philosophy of Sartre and Camus as well as the poetry of Jibananda Das and Shakti Chattopadhyay. The existential dilemma of a man thrown into a world as a stranger is characteristic of his work. In his paintings, Amitava introduces a single figure within a dense, turgidly rendered space. His work is primarily based on human situations, where man is both the creator and the destroyer. The natural and artificial are cleverly fused to show the interdependence of the man-made and natural worlds. He tries to bring out the inner struggles of men placed in difficult times. From the gentleness and resignation in his earlier works, he moved on to canvases that depict the violence and avarice of modern times. Working with a variety of mediums, Amitava uses watercolours, oils, and pastels to portray his thoughts and feelings evoked by his observations of the life around him. In the 70’s Amitava co-founded the New Group, a Delhi based artists collective. He taught art at Jamia Millia Islamia (1974-75) and was a visiting faculty member of College of Art and Women’s Polytechnic, Delhi (1977).

Amitava has designed publications, exhibitions, interior, furniture and created trade fair graphics. He has been profiled in ‘A Painters portrait,’ a film by K.Bikram Singh for Doordarshan and numerous other television programmes. He has co-curated the contemporary Indian art show ‘The Yellow Deity’ for the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest, Hungary. He has held various solo exhibitions including at Art Heritage, Delhi (1990 & 1996); Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (1993 & 2004); Galerie FIA, Amsterdam (1997); ‘Come play with me,’ Bagash Art Gallery, Dubai (2006). His selected group exhibitions include ‘Two Painters- Amitava Das and Manjit Bawa,’ Black Partridge Gallery, New Delhi (1977); ‘The Pictoral Space,’ curated by Geeta Kapur, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1977); All India Exhibition of Drawings, Chennai (1981); Prints, Galerie Steinmetz, Bonn, Germany (1981); Grenchen Triemale- International Exhibition of Prints, Switzerland (1982); Contemporary India Painting, Moscow (1984); Fredrikstad Biennale of Prints, Norway (1984); Contemporary India Painting, Darmstadt, Germany (1989); ‘War and Peace-Contemporary Paintings,’ Max Mueller Bhavan, Calcutta, Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bombay (1990); Three Contemporary Artists, Bremen, Germany (1991); Contemporary Indian Art, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1992); Indische Gegenwartskunst, Mainz Germany and Stettin, Poland (1993); India Songs- Multiple Streams in Contemporary Indian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1993); Orange Regional Gallery, Australia (1993); Drawing ’94, Gallery Espace, AIFACS, New Delhi (1994); Phase – II : Contemporary Practices, Gallery Kolkata (2019); Old Bengal, Modern to Contemporary (Series – I), Gallery Kolkata (2020); India Art Fair, Shrine Empire, New Delhi (2024).

Amitava received a fellowship from the Federal Republic of Germany for advanced exposure to exhibition and graphic design (1989).  He has received the National Award (1976) and the Sahitya Kala Parishad Award (1982). Amitava’s works can be found in the collections of Society of Contemporary Art, London; National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi; Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal; Punjab Museum, Chandigarh; Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi and more.