HYDERABAD: In 1910, when British artist Lady Herringham asked Abanindranath Tagore to refer to her some Indian artists to help copy the frescoes of Ajanta, Bengal Art was noticed by critics and art connoisseurs in England. The Bengal School of Art that rose during the British Raj was avant-garde in every possible way. The works initially denounced oil medium which was decidedly considered very western and then infused with elements truly Indian in nature.
Later, the renderings of monotony was felt and a mix, a unique style of combining the Indian art forms with European style was born. A freshness could be seen in the landscapes with sparkling river-banks, blue rural skies and portraiture of people both in the city and countryside. That’s how Paresh Maity’s luminescent artwork of sunrise on a river-bank rivals those with the finest layers of oil. The brush strokes unfurl the mist-wrapped mud-huts of rural Bengal that seem to be waking up with the boats anchored nearby. One can see the brilliance of colours in his watercolour painting which is part of the group exhibition titled ‘Souls of Wide Walls’ ongoing at Kalakriti Art Gallery.
The exhibition brings together works of other four celebrated artists of Bengal: Jogen Chowdhury, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Samir Mondal and Avijit Dutta. It is not just the watercolours that one can see, other mediums like tempera and ink, too, have been used.
A palpable sense of aesthetics is established in Avijit Dutta’s series titled ‘Private Museum’. The artworks in tempera and mounted glass glance back at history and emerge as a melange of faded colours that seem to distill from the cracked glass of past itself, especially royalty nearing its sunset. The painting frames, too, appear washed to maintain the synchronous yet muted flow of the opuses. The champagne-pink and dusted-jade shades add to nostalgia of a time gone by.
Notably, watercolours are often used to depict social phenomena or to highlight social or political issues much like artworks by artists of Idyllic School. We see faint shadows of the same in master-artist Jogen Chowdhury’s works in the gallery. In his watercolours the rustic life of Bengal is prominent with the scenes in Kalikapur as the people with shapeless faces seem to be engrossed in deep conversation. The luxury of time is focussed through this. The culmination of tradition with contemporary images is noticeable on the canvas. There are other works that he created while staying at the artist residency of the gallery. The abstract forms conjure their own symphony, the artist’s use of inks as well.
Streets of Calcutta come alive in sepia tones in Sanjay Bhattacharya’s works, and in forlorn corners he evokes the sense of finding gold in ruins. That’s how in one of his paintings in walnut-brown shades a giant clock standing sturdy in an imbroglio of other antiques that don’t stop existing even when forsaken by time itself. Quite paradoxical to this are kaleidoscopic oeuvres of contemporary artist Samir Mondal. The serenity of Buddha’s portraits are marked by blushing flowers crowned on his wise head. The colours seem to flow rhythmically on canvases.
The exhibition is on till August 31