At 83, Paritosh Sen towers above many of his contemporaries in the rare quality of his creative personality — unwithered by age and exuding an aura and charisma that are the sterling gifts of his experience. This quality comes most naturally to nestle in him through all the splendours of his decades-long experience as a painter, writer and a perceptive and sensitive participant in the social and culture milieu of his time. These facets of his personality can be glimpsed in the assemblage of Sen’s oeuvre-his first retrospective – with a selection of works covering more than 60 years of his creative life, beginning at the end of the 30s, when the Bengal School movement still retained much of its hold over the Indian art scene. Sen’s spirit of experimentation and adventure has taken him far and wide. Throughout his oeuvre a touch of humour is almost always present, as is a measure of pain. He is also a major author in Bengali, acclaimed for his highly individualistic and metallic prose.