Manishi Dey was an Indian painter of the Bengal School of Art. He was born in Dhaka, Bengal Presidency on 22nd September, 1909. He died in Kolkata at the height of his career at 56 years of age. Manishi Dey was the younger brother of Mukul Dey, a pioneering Indian artist and dry point etcher. Their two sisters, Annapura and Rani, were accomplished in arts and crafts as well.
He studied at Abanindranath Tagore’s Bengal School of Art, the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. He became one of the most versatile students of Abanindranath, whose other close students also included Nandalal Bose, Asit Kumar Haldar and Jamini Roy. These were the leading artists that spread the form and spirit of the neo-Bengal school throughout India.
One of the major sources of Manishi Dey's inspirations were his travels throughout the Indian subcontinent in search for inspiration. The watercolour 'Wash' technique, an art style he used masterfully in his works. At just 19 years of age, Manishi Dey held his first solo show 1928 in Calcutta followed by Nagpur (1928), Madras (1929), Bangalore (1930), Bombay (1932), Shrinagar (1932).
In 1946, his works were exhibited by the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) in New Delhi, jointly with other leading Indian artists such as Amrita Sher-Gil and Sailoz Mookherjea. Manishi Dey interacted closely with artists like M. F. Husain, F.N. Souza, S.H. Raza and Shantanu Ukil in New Delhi during the late-1940s and early-1950s. He later became a member of the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group (PAG), which was founded in 1947. PAG was one of the most influential forces on modern Indian painting.
Manishi Dey's works changed radically and got a new freshness. Bombay Progressive Artists Group, which enabled him to exchange with numerous leading artists of his time. In 1949 he painted a series of twenty-two moving images of non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan that captured the agony and pain of their flight. Through his wide prominence, he became one of the leading artists to promote traditional Indian Cultural Heritage.
He always encouraged young artists to follow their traditional cultural roots. Since the early 21st Century, Manishi Dey's works are also included at major international auction houses, such as Bonhams and Christie's, as well as at numerous high-profile Indian auction houses.