Given his flamboyant sartorial style and global renown, Paresh Maity’s childlike simplicity is disarming. “I paint 24 hours,” he says, his voice soft and unassuming. “Even in my dreams, I may not be executing the paintings but mentally I am cooking them up.”
Speaking about his ongoing 74th solo exhibition in Kolkata, ‘Sounds of Silence’, which showcases the best 50 works from his personal collection, Maity explains how his watercolours, sculptures and installations on display map his artistic journey of the past 40 years.
“It was not hard short-listing the works as I was clearly making a bridge between all the works. For instance, my cityscapes include my early works to my recent ones,” says the 50-year-old artist.
“Landscapes from my early days on display show how they went from abstract expressionism to abstraction to minimalistic to figurative,” he explains. The exhibition, being held at CIMA Gallery and the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata, is on till January 16, 2016.
‘Sounds of Silence’ is Maity’s “biggest show ever” in India with many of his installations being shown here for the first time. “It has my drawings, paintings, sculptures, installations from my own collection and films. I have made four short films which have a deep relationship with my visual art,” says Maity.
Among the highlights of the show is his celebrated ‘Mystic Abode’ (a house made with 8,500 bells), which won him the Cartier Award in St. Moritz, Switzerland. “It is a functional sculpture—a well-built house, like you can take your double bed inside and live in it,” says Maity. “It has two doors, windows, and the moment you walk in, you realise that there is a sound of silence. Every bell has a unique reflection of light.”
His award-winning creation was born out of his meditation on the sound of bells. “Even as a child I felt the positive energy created by bells. In villages, a mother ties a bell or ghungroo to her toddler so that the sound keeps her informed of the child’s whereabouts as she works. As long as she hears the tinkling sound, she knows the child is safe. Similarly, cows and goats have bells tied around their necks. In Switzerland, even at night you can hear cow bells. So that was my inspiration,” he says.
Another gigantic attraction is the eponymous sculpture, ‘Sounds of Silence’—a 12-and-a-half feet tall face composed of 4,000 bells.
Maity’s fondness for epic proportions is evident in the other works on display as well. “There are installations here weighing 2,500 kg each,” he says, adding, “Most are huge in size, some paintings are nearly 100 sq ft. My largest watercolour is a 4.5ft by 9ft landscape called ‘Mystic World’.”
A brief chat with the Padma Shri awardee makes it clear that he wears his fame rather lightly. “I am a very grounded person coming from a small village,” says Maity, talking about his success over the decades. “The way I was as a child, today I am the same person. I want to remain as the same person. I want to paint like a child without any preconceived ideas,” he says.
Though the Midnapore-born artist’s initiation into art was through clay idols, he achieved international acclaim for his watercolours. In recent years, the versatile artist forayed into installations and sculptures. A trail of awards and recognitions marks this journey, but ask Maity about his diverse oeuvre and you get a matter-of-fact account.
“Play with the clay was my life and passion. Painting came into my life because I didn’t have money to support myself. Sculptures cost a lot of money but making watercolour works was inexpensive. They supported me and gave me the confidence to create the best of watercolours,” says Maity. “Then some seven to eight years back again I started moulding and sculpting. Life as we know comes a full circle. So now it is full-time sculpting, installations, paintings, drawings,” he says.
An avid traveller, Maity says being on the go is crucial to his art. “Through travel, I discover new language, new colours, new people, new frames, new mediums. Wherever I travel, my paints and brushes go with me. I paint wherever I go, wherever I stay,” he says.
More new installations, sculptures, international shows are in the offing. And Maity is far from done yet.
“I hope that God gives me some more years to create many more creations,” he says.