Background
Jahar Dasgupta was born on May 31, 1942 in Jamshedpur, India. His childhood spent in Jamshedpur where at the small age he used to draw elephants, dogs, trees on the floor. Later their family moved to Dhanbad due to his father Narendranath Dasgupta who worked in TISCO in an executive post left the job and joined Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research institute as a scientist. At the age of 9 he draw Stalin face and Ma Sarada Devi on the wall. This took the attention of his parents and they decided to send him in some art school.
Education
Dasgupta was admitted to Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan in 1960. He studied in Kala Bhavana, the fine arts faculty of the Visva-Bharati University, and took his primary lessons under mentors like Nand Lal Bose, Ramkinkar Baiz and Benode Behari Mukherjee. In 1964 Dasgupta obtained diploma from Kala Bhavana.
Career
Dasgupta's first job was an art teacher in a non Bengali school in North Calcutta where he served for many years. In his struggling time, he also took many art tuitions to run his family. Simultaneously, he continued to participate art shows regularly.
His first solo exhibition was organised in Birla Art and Culture Kolkata, West Bengal. He developed his own style of expression since the beginning of 1970s. Dasgupta had developed his individual style in paintings and drawings. Previously he has painted in oil medium and now he mainly works in ink, pastel and acrylic colour.
His others solo exhibitions took place in Laxmana Art Gallery, Lalit Kala Academy, Chitrakoot, Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta. He exhibited his first solo in abroad in 2004 at Gallery Hansmania (Norway) and later at Club Bangladesh (Sweden). Dasgupta also participated many group exhibitions throughout India and abroad.
Jahar Dasgupta was the former President at Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata where he currently lives and works. He is also working as a principal of an art academy - Birla Academy of Art and Culture.
Politics
In the 70s, like many people from art and cultural field in West Bengal, Jahar was among those who attracted to Left ideologies and immediately attached to Gananatya Sangha. He twice stood on Panchayet vote under left wing parties at Madhyamgram North 24 Parganas in 1974 and 1984. In December 2014 he joined Bharatiya Janata Party at the presence of BJP West Bengal State President Mr. Rahul Sinha.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
Amitava Dasgupta: "I have known this self-effacing and very courteous man for a long time. I have observed him in varied situations. In the hustle-bustle of organizational activity and in the privacy of personal loneliness. Through his work, Jahar has tried to draw a bridge between two extremities. A bridge on which aesthetes can come closer and closer to each other. I have had occasions to traverse this colorful cause-way."
Shankar Majumder: "Jahar's intention is to draw the viewer away to another plane - a surreal world of dreams and imagination. He succeeds with dexterity."