Felicitation of the artist at a special event held to unveil the portrait of Prof. B. Sengupto

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Unveiling of the Portrait of Prof Sengupto

Administrators , Campus Facilities , Faculty

In the image Dr. A. L. Mudaliar (Chairman, Board of Governors) felicitates the artist (as identified by Mrs. Gourishankar, wife of the photographer) with a shawl. Also seen on the dais from the left: Prof. R. K. Gupta (HOD, Humanities and Social Sciences), the artist who painted the portrait, Dr. A. L. Mudaliar (Chairman, Board of Governors) and Prof. A. Ramachandran (Director, IITM).

A life size portrait of Prof. B. Sengupto, the first Director of IIT Madras was created and unveiled in honour of his instrumental and manifold efforts to set up the Institution at a special event that was held at the Institute’s Open Air Theatre. The painting initially graced the Building Sciences Block (which was known as the admin building at that time) and later the Department of Management Studies (previously known as Central Library). Finally it was brought to the Institute’s Heritage Centre. The original painting (Oil painting: 6ft * 4ft), which is still with the Heritage Centre, was badly damaged by termites and moisture and hence a re-created portrait has been created and displayed at the Centre. This process has been documented in a Letter from the Heritage Centre. The Chief Guest for the special event held in 1968 was Prof. Maneklal Sankalchand Thacker, an Indian power engineer, academic and the Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the largest research and development organization in India. Prof. Thacker had worked at the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation, taught at engineering colleges and later joined the Department of Power Engineering at IISc.

An identical photograph can be found in Album 0051 with the 001/0051/IMG_1578_1.

Collection:

Gourishankar Collection

Album Name:

Unveiling of the Portrait of Prof Sengupto

Photograph ID:

001/0261/IMG_0026

Album ID:

0261

Place:

OAT

Photographer:

C. Gourishankar (1926-2002). A geologist by qualification, Gourishankar started his career as a photographer after working for many years with the Geological Survey of India. In everything that he did, Gourishankar strove to achieve flawlessness and impeccable quality. Thus his photography too was characterised by this drive for perfection. Every photograph that Gourishankar took was meticulously planned and shot and printed with diligence and patience. Gourishankar carried out most of the official photography at IIT Madras in the 1960s.

Event:

Unveiling of the Portrait of Prof Sengupto