[3] Lahiri had two older brothers, the noted litterateur and writer Kamal Kumar Majumdar and artist Nirode Mazumdar, one of the Greats of 20th century modernism, now largely forgotten[4] and a founder member of The Calcutta Group.

At the art college she was drilled into being a technically adept draftsman, following the curriculum set by the British colonial system, however was at loggerheads with Basanta Ganguly on many occasions as she would recall years later in a candid interview.

[1][7] This international exposure enabled her to break free from the strictures of Academic training and the lingering stereotype of 'Indian-style' painting that prevailed amongst most Indian artists.

It was fully in keeping with the period's main artistic trends that she moved from her training and in Paris she actively embraced the legacy of the French High Modern.

Embracing the vocabularies of contemporary European modernism as the key idioms of her practice, like many of her generation, Paris was the Mecca of Modernism-the artistic repertoires of Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and Rousseau had remained cognizable reference points for her own innovations with form, colour and content-which left a lasting impact on her.

From this rich, historical repertoire of art emerged her own trademark style which she was known for- a particular mode of contorted human figuration, a flourish of bold lines and brushwork and raw bright colours with a flair for magnitude and scale.

From the 1980s, one arresting feature of her oeuvre was her predilection for vast sizes and scale, as her work began to unfurl, mural-like over stretches of canvas or paper where she moved from densely narrative and illustrative compositions to a growing simplification and economy of forms addressing social issues.

Following the practice of artists creating the image of goddess Durga at Bakulbagan which started in 1975 by Nirode Mazumdar, Shanu Lahiri designed the Durga idol twice for Bakulbagan, following the lead of other artists who each year created modern and stylistic idioms to work within a clay-modelled image of the goddess.

A parallel rising urge for sculpture had seen her move from small clay models and perfume bottle figures cast in bronze.

[1] She was recognised for her highly individualistic style and became a leading artist on Kolkata's contemporary art scene, along with fellow painter Karuna Shaha.

This is where a different approach to marketing and promotional activity would have helped, enabling a greater degree of engagement with more modern and avant-garde art trends.

While at Rabindra Bharati University as the Dean of the Visual Arts Faculty, Shanu Lahiri got to see first hand the works of Rabindranath Tagore.

[3] She had also written a series of short stories and anecdotes revolving around the many animals that surrounded herself and her family which was compiled as 'Edo Goli Theke Beni Madhav'.

A book titled Tabled by her daughter Damayanti Lahiri and designed by her nephew Chittrovanu Mazumdar was launched after her death and consists of a collection of her recipes, paintings, scribbles, and doodles- "Ma wielded both brush and ladle with ease and enthusiasm and effortlessly dipped into her crucible of cumin and cobalt blue.

It is a free flowing anecdotal installation, compiled in no particular direction-an assemblage of illustrations, photos, quirks, recipes and minor narratives.".

Beginning in the 1980s, through her 'Love Calcutta Project' she encouraged street children and students to paint on the walls of Kolkata in an effort to beautify the city.

In 1984[8] Lahiri gathered students of La Martiniere Calcutta to paint over their school wall with colourful art and murals.

[8] By 2010, 25 years after she first painted them, some of her public art and mural was still visible, including a 220 feet (67 m) length of wall on the Justice Chandra Madhav Road in Kolkata.

[1] Alongside her continued penchant for large canvases-for the challenge of magnitude and scale-Shanu Lahiri did not betray any signs of halting or rounding up.