If a shared passion for art can bring an artist father-son duo closer to be put together in a posthumous exhibition, it’s the differences in their artistic endeavours that make the viewer stop for a long gaze at their works. The ongoing exhibition, ‘Father and Son’, co-hosted by the India International Centre (IIC) and The Raza Foundation, has showcased variations in style, themes and expressions in the works of Bengali modernists Bireswar Sen and his son Sureshwar Sen.
Managing trustee of Raza Foundation and poet Ashok Vajpeyi who opened the show said at the exhibition’s inauguration: “The late art critic and historian BN Goswamy asked me years ago if I had seen the works of Bireswar Sen, I was astonished that I did not know anything about him. I got to know that Goswamy was thinking of putting an exhibition of the father and son together--both very different kinds of painters. I thought it was worth exploring.”
Making a distinction between their works, Vajpeyi said: “Bireswar had the taste and eye for the small (miniature). The detailing he has done in a small space brings the grandeur of the mountains, makes one feel the beauty of the sunsets, and witness the tiny human figures. It underscores that nothing needs to be crowded in order to attract attention. In a way, Bireswar was looking at eternity. On the other hand, his son and disciple, Sureshwar was looking at history in his compositions. Art, somewhere lies in this dark grey space between eternity and history”.
The exhibition was an exploration of that unknown space. Conceptualised by Goswamy in 2023, it came to fruition with a team of curators comprising art historian and author Ella Datta; former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Delhi, Pradip Kumar Datta; senior exhibition designer Aparna Nambiar; and son of Sureshwar and grandson of Bireswar Sen, Prithviswar Sen.
The exhibition can be viewed in many ways. “As a striking generational shift; as the exploration of the remarkable fusion of multiple cultures of painting drawn from different parts of the globe; of the efflorescence and hybridity on modern Indian art traditions that has its locus in Lucknow (the home of both painters) but draws on many other centres ranging from the
Bengal School of Jorasanko (Bireswar’s training ground with the Tagores) as well as Santiniketan (where Sureshwar trained and worked in his early years in the company of Ramkinkar Baij and Benode Behari Mukherjee, under the tutelage of Nandalal Bose) while cross-fertilising with other metropolitan art centres in India and many other countries, but especially Japan,” shared the curatorial team.
The father
Born in 1897 in Kolkata, Bireswar grew up in an era of cultural and intellectual ferment. He studied art at the city’s Indian Society of Oriental Art. Right from his early years, he was surrounded by luminaries like the poet Rabindranath Tagore, painters
Abanindranath, Gaganendranath, Nandalal Bose, and the Japanese scholar and art critic Okakura Kakuzo. “His manner of drawing with a fine brush line and his medium – watercolour and wash technique – bear the characteristics of the Bengal School. But what he does with them is purely his own idiom,” noted Ella adding, “his application of colour shimmers and glows, unlike the pale washes used by many of the Bengal School artists.
Similarly, his brush lines, although fine, are firm and clear, rendering a sharp definition to his forms that makes the tiny, miniature space come alive and demand an elevated response.” This wash technique and fine brushwork evoked tranquillity and reverence for nature in his works like ‘The Dream Mountain’, ‘Roaming In The Gloaming’, and ‘Submontaine Tracts’. Each of them portrayed mountains and greenery in a soft luminous effect.
In the late 1920s, Bireswar turned increasingly towards miniature landscapes. Many, including his son Sureshwar, wondered if international artists like Nicholas Roerich, a Russia-born master-painter of the Himalayas, and several Japanese artists influenced his works. “Some outstanding Japanese painters like Taikan Yokoyama, Kampo Arai and Tenshin Okakura were among the many foreign artists who were invited by Rabindranath to work and study in India.
It was under Kampo, who went to India in 1917, that Bireswar received his early training. Kampo taught him the elimination of non-essentials,” noted Sureshwar in the exhibition book Father and Son. This minimalism dominated most of Bireswar’s works. For instance, ‘In The Song Of Unrequited Love’, ‘Meditation’ and ‘Padmasambhava’, he showed only a single tiny miniature figure as a seeker of love, wisdom, or perhaps divine presence, without populating the space with any other centripetal element.
The son
In contrast, Sureshwar’s works were charged with a vibrant celebration of life. Born in 1923 in Kolkata, he studied at Lucknow Government College of Art and Crafts. Later, he went on to pursue masters in drawing and painting at Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan in the early 1940s. “The paintings that he did early in his career – women engaged in quotidian activities, rural Indian scenes, and landscapes show some influence of the Santiniketan masters,” noted Ella.
This was seen in paintings like ‘The Burning Sun’, ‘Fetching Water,’ ‘Santhal Girl’, ‘Harvest’ and ‘The Performer’ which brought a kaleidoscope of rural life in bold Expressionist brush strokes. During his lifetime, Sureshwar travelled to Kumaon, Garhwal, Kashmir, Varanasi, Himachal Pradesh and Nepal. His paintings like ‘Palki Bearers’ and ‘Back Home from Jungles’ showed the life of people and their occupations rather than “majestic panoramas” unlike his father, noted Prithviswar.
However, it was his year-long stay in Japan in 1967 that proved to be a turning point. Inspired by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s classic film, Seven Samurai, he created a series of paintings borrowed from the Japanese Chigiri-e collage style. It was the first time he experimented with mixed media comprising torn paper, textiles and paints.
Similarities, differences
Unlike his father, Sureshwar used bold and bright hues of yellow, ochre, red, and blue. He used diverse mediums — oils, acrylic, watercolour, and mixed media unlike his father’s dominant usage of watercolours. Another difference was in brushwork.
Sureshwar used thick, calligraphic lines that glided on the surface with a robust energy while his father had a more restrained usage given the miniature nature of his art.
Vajpeyi summed up, “It’s their Bengal School heritage, their shared commitment towards art and a responsiveness towards people, nature, and places that binds them.”
‘Father and Son’ is on till December 24, at IIC, Max Mueller Marg, 11am to 7pm