Profile:

Meera Mukherjee was an Indian sculptor and painter. Subsequently, she worked under the noted Indonesian painter Effendi who was a state guest and was living and working in Santiniketan. Mukherjee went to Germany in 1953 to study painting in Munich. She switched to sculpture after one term. She returned to India in 1956 after completing her course. For the next four years she taught art in a couple of schools. From 1960 onwards, she has been researching folk metal casting techniques as well as- the casting techniques of classical Indian sculptures. She has also been doing her own work and held her first show in 1960 after her return from Germany.

Mukherjee used the circ perdu or the lost wax process for her sculptures. Deeply influenced by the Dhokra sculptors of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, Mukherjee perfected a technique in bronze that was completely her own. Similarly, she evolved an iconography that was unique. Opposing pulls of mass and movement, strength and vulnerability give an intense character to her figures enhanced by the textural play created by the use of decorative elements on the surface. Many of Mukherjee's works show the use of Bengali calligraphy on the surface. Manifestations of playfulness and whimsy often add another dimension to her work.

Mukherjee's work documents the life of the common people, - fishermen, weavers, women stitching Kantha, commuters in a crowded bus, laborers laying cables and carrying earth. Many of her sculptures also relate to music and dance. The energy and dynamism of her studies of Baul dancers or the dancing Shiva figures have a charged quality that overcomes the limitations of metal as a medium. The sense of movement is also seen in her sculptures where she visualizes a river as the universe. Two elements mark the spirit of Mukherjee's work. One is celebration of humanism and two, a yearning for reaching beyond the quotidian and rejoicing in freedom and liberation.

Education : 

Society of Oriental Art and studied there till 1941.

Delhi Polytechnic; Diploma in sculpture, painting

Munich art Institute (1953-1956)

Major Exhibitions:

Various exhibitions throughout the world

Awards :

 Padma Shri, the President's Award of Master Craftsman, and the Abanindranath Award from the West Bengal Government

Collection:

Her works are a part of several private art collections both in India and abroad.