Artiste Isha Mahammad succumbed to Covid-19 early on Tuesday. A resident of AC Block in Salt Lake, he was 88 and is survived by his wife, son, daughter and three grandchildren.

“My father had comorbidities and a few days ago tested positive for Covid,” said son Shamir Isha. “After a search for beds in several hospitals he was admitted to Beleghata I.D. and B.G. Hospital but could not pull through.” Isha has been buried at the Bagmari Muslim Burial Ground.

Isha was born near Konnogar in 1933 and pursued a diploma from the Government College Of Art and Craft, Calcutta, an institution he would later become principal of. He was also trained in graphic art from Dusseldorf Academy in erstwhile West Germany in 1968 and held exhibitions across the world. He was also president of The Asiatic Society for two terms between 2016 and 2020.

Isha was considered a progressive and secular intellectual. “Baba was a humanitarian, held women in high regard, loved poetry, Tagore, books and was the most secular person I know,” said Shamir, himself an art historian and history professor at St. Xavier’s College, recalling how critics and masses alike had praised the Durga he had sculpted at the Bakulbagan puja once.

“As for Id, I would have to drag him to public namaz. He would complain that people in Salt Lake do not perform the kola-kuli (embrace) after namaz. So besides greeting ministers and high ranking officers at the gathering, he would walk to the rear of the field and embrace devotees of the labourer class who had come,” says Shamir. “He died on the 27th day of the fasting month Ramadan, that is said to be the most auspicious of days. Being an artiste, he shall live on in his work.”