(1923 - 1998)
Born in 1923, in Kolkata, Meera Mukherjee studied painting, graphics and sculpture at the New Delhi Polytechnic and the Academie de Nildenden in Kunstem, Germany. She also trained under the noted Indonesian painter Effendi who was a state guest living and working in Santiniketan. Mukherjee held her first solo show of paintings and sculptures at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata in 1960. Other solo shows include those held at Akar Prakar, Kolkata, in 2010; Galerie 88, Kolkata, in 2008 and 1997; Art Today, New Delhi in 1997; and Gallery Chemould, Kolkata in 1966. Some posthumous exhibitions in which her work has been featured are ‘Expanding Horizons Contemporary Indian Art’ presented by Bodhi Art in Mumbai, Amravati, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Solapur, Kholapur, Pune and Nasik, in 2008-09; ‘3 Masters Briefly’ at Akar Prakar, Kolkata, in 2008; ‘Santhal Family Positions Around on Indian Sculpture’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, in 2008; and ‘Freedom Sixty Years after Indian Independence’ at the Centre for International Modern Art (CIMA), Kolkata, in 2008. Amongst her important public installations is the sculpture, ‘Ashoka at Kalinga’ in New Delhi, a bronze measuring over 11 feet, executed in 1972. Meera Mukherjee passed away in 1998, at the age of 75.