Narayan Sridhar Bendre was born in 1910 in Indore and passed away on 18th February 1992. In 1929, he took admission to the Holkar College, Indore and in 1933, he passed his B.A. examination from Agra University. In 1934, he passed his Diploma in Painting from the State School of Art, Indore.
The Silver Medal of Art from the Bombay Art Society in 1934 afforded him early recognition, followed by the Gold Medal in 1941. For a part of 1945 he was artist in residence at Santiniketan, where he met Nandalal Bose, Ram Kinkar Baij, Binode Behari Mukherjee, and Jamini Roy (in Calcutta).
Bendre's early works were primarily landscapes and portraits in oils and gouache, they were classified as academic and impressionist. In 1947 he went to the United States and had a solo exhibition at New York's Windermere Gallery in 1948. En-route to India, he traveled through Europe, and upon his return in March 1948, joined the Progressive Artists Group (PAG). In 1950 he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, During his teaching years at Baroda's Faculty of Fine Arts (where he taught from 1950-1966 and became Dean of the Faculty of Painting in 1959), he embarked on what is perceived as the most important phase of his career: cubist, expressionist, and abstract tendencies, trying to combine Indian formal themes with mainstream European modernism. He left the University in 1966. It was after he resigned from Baroda in 1966 that he started experimenting with his version of pointillism. Conditioned by the quasi-modernist landscapes of the Indore School in the early 20th century, his early interest in landscapes continued throughout his career.
In 1955, Bendre received the National Award from the Lalit Kala Akademi for his work, Thorn. In 1969, he received the Padma Shri award and in 1992, he received the Padma Bhushan award. In 1974, he received the fellowship of the Lalit Kala Akademi. In 1984, the Visva Bharati University conferred him the Aban-Gagan Award and Madhya Pradesh state government conferred him the Kalidas Samman (1986–87).
Despite such exceptional career he worked for the underprivileged people whenever possible. After Independence when firebrand freedom fighter and social worker from Indore Guru Radha Kishan took the initiative to bring the first Janta Library in Delhi, which was inaugurated by Balraj Sahni along with Amrita Pritam, Santosh Anand and Aruna Asaf Ali, he along with another legendary painter BR Gurjar participated and contributed accordingly. This study centre cum library is still running with a social centre at Guru Radha Kishan Smarak Bhavan, Clock Tower, Delhi.
During his professional career he had participated in various group shows and held several solo shows. Posthumously his work is regularly featured in group exhibitions and included in art auctions.
