Biren De was born in 1926 in Faridpur, Undivided India | Present-day Bangladesh.

In 1995, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Woman with a Vase (1956), offered in the Contemporary Indian Paintings: From The Chester and Davida Herwitz Charitable Trust by Sotheby's, which concluded on 12 June 1995 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹1,98,637 ($6,325). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Mother (1956), offered in the Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series: Indian Contemporary Art by Osian's, which concluded on 02 December 2005 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹25,30,000 ($54,856.9). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1999, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Widows (1957), offered in the Intuitive-Logic - The Next Step: Auctions of Indian Art - Classical, Folk, Tribal, Modern & Contemporary Traditions by HEART, which concluded on 28 November 1999 at New Delhi, achieving a sale price of ₹5,04,000 ($11,613). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

By 1955, Biren De’s interest in portraiture and anatomical paintings was waning. His voluptuous Santhal woman of the late forties gave way to a couple, a man and a woman. The principle of opposites was moving into place. This figurative twosome slowly underwent a loosening of structure, cancelling detail and form, gradually acquiring geometry. After the mid-fifties his work had settled into some of his favorite shapes. Different stylisations of the lingam, symbol of the figurative man in his earlier paintings, make their appearance. They are straight and wedgelike or have the roundness of the spherical, are either cylindrical or oval. The symbol of Shakti, the receiver of the male seed, the bindu, has a cup-like U shape, ready to receive the erect force of Shiva. De’s creative response to the male and female form and therefore the inverted U, the rigid tubular shape for the male. ‘Symbols are like sounds I hear inside me, inside my loneliness, to which I am united. When I paint ‘Purush’ and ‘Prakriti’ this is not a subject, it is part of the continual movement and quest in life.’

From around the end of 1956 the human figures in my compositions started getting disembodied and turning into free shapes and units…And these shapes were placed on a darkbrown foreground denoting earth; they would often group themselves together into the form of a womb opening up to the light in the horizon – holding inside it the promise of a new birth.

In 2006, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1963), offered in the Forty Masterpieces Museum Quality Series VII by Osian's, which concluded on 09 September 2006 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹30,00,000 ($64,837). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2008, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of The Movement (1967), offered in the Indian Modern & Contemporary Art by Osian's, which concluded on 18 March 2008 at New Delhi, achieving a sale price of ₹48,00,000 ($118,168). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2024, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1972), offered in the Masters Legacy by Asta Guru, which concluded on 28 April 2024 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹1,02,84,974 ($125,426). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2018, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of September '73 (1973), offered in the Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art & Art of Pakistan by Bonhams, which concluded on 24 October 2018 at London, achieving a sale price of ₹57,03,174 ($70,652). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2004, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of April '74 (1974), offered in the Indian and Southeast Asian Art: Including 20th Century Indian Paintings by Christie's, which concluded on 23 September 2004 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹8,78,373 ($19,120). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2006, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Untitled (1983), offered in the Modern and Contemporary Indian Art by Christie's, which concluded on 20 September 2006 at New York, achieving a sale price of ₹38,68,200 ($84,000). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

It can now be said without qualification that he (Biren De) is one of our most significant painters… Every enterprise is well-planned though I must confess that his sketches for composition, which he executes in pastels, are sometimes more subtle in effect than the expanded painting in oils…

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of August' 88 (1988), offered in the Indian Contemporary Art: Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture by Osian's, which concluded on 09 February 2005 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹14,95,000 ($34,258). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 1997, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of October '91 (1991), offered in the The Intuitive-Logic II: Modern & Contemporary Indian Paintings, Drawings, Graphics, Sculpture & Tapestry by HEART, which concluded on 15 November 1997 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹3,00,000 ($8,165). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2004, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of May '91 (1991), offered in the The Masterpieces & Museum Quality Series: Indian Contemporary Art – Books, Paintings & Sculpture by Osian's, which concluded on 15 October 2004 at New Delhi, achieving a sale price of ₹9,77,913 ($21,324). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

as an artist I had to follow my own path, and whatever was happening inside me had to come out on my canvases. In my own way I was trying to assimilate these two seemingly disparate experiences of mine: one with the tribal folks and the other with the seekers of truth: one vital and raw, the other austere and serene. To me a synthesis of the two was the ideal, as I felt they were two different manifestations of the same source – energy… The architectonic principle on which the compositions were based was a recurring factor in all my works: the figures and the environment would be bound together by a strong grid, constructed out of different arrangement of black lines – vertical, horizontal and elliptical… From around the end of 1956 the human figures in my compositions started getting embodied and turning into free shapes and units… at the end of 1959, emerged two major signs (or symbols): one curved (U-like) representing female principle and the other straight and wedge like representing the Male principle. From 1960 onwards my work has sought the unity of these two… and placing them alongside other fundamental shapes – the ancient circle and the square, cylinder and the parabola… the underlying theme constituted by the group of paintings (done between 1962 & 1965) being: the coming together of man and woman, consummation of their union resulting in conception and birth of a new life, and their transcendental journey together to Divinity. The forms obviously came from erotic sources, but their eroticism was implicit.

In 2005, the artist achieved a new high in the auction market with the sale of Light Ascending (May '97) (1997), offered in the Masterpieces and Museum Quality Series: Indian Contemporary Art by Osian's, which concluded on 02 December 2005 at Mumbai, achieving a sale price of ₹27,60,000 ($59,843.89). This record marked a defining moment in the artist's market history, reflecting both the significance of the artwork and its reception within the broader art world.

In 2009, an artwork by Biren De was featured on the cover of Osians: Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern & Contemporary Art (June 2009, New York), marking a documented highlight in the artist's public and auction market visibility.