Carelessness, thy name is
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata
Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata has become a stand in name for un-professionalism. With commendable verve and boldness young art critic Oindrilla Maity pin points the shallowness with which artifacts are displayed and exhibitions are mounted in the Academy of Fine Arts.
The Academy of Fine Arts has reached its saturation point. I don’t have a doubt about that like all others. Its stagnation is a repertoire of the run of the mill works: busts and portraits of voluptuous women (it’s been ages since we have last seen a complete human body showcased at the academy) dwelling in gardens of a utopian world. – That’s the only theme now which they all produce, keeping in mind the ‘market’. It’s been ages since Hiran Mitra has showcased his installation.
Against such a backdrop, the group show organized Nabanita Banerjee, Swapan Sarkar and five other young artists – most of who are still doing their post-graduation – is seemingly enterprising, despite the fact that they belong to the suburbs . These artists have begun to take an interest in the world about them.
But what oddity is this? Ignorance has to know its limits. It’s a dreadful thing to accept all that we viewers are offered all the time we step into the academy. – The group show under discourse is titled ‘a Group Show of Paintings and Sculptures’ – and that’s all. Weren’t there solicitors enough to suggest an appropriate title to the show? I presume, the artist has much more to do other than just painting a canvas. Organising a show requires a lot of other things as well, and in order to be saleable, too, one needs to develop credentials.
Swapan Sarkar is a self-taught artist. His geometrically abstract shapes hint at Raza. Sarkar follow’s a scheme of horizontal bands intersecting vertical ones, with a circular image placed centrally. Often he makes use of registers, dividing the entire panel, which is smeared with layers of transparent motifs, in order to create his abstract landscapes. “I want to render all that is microscopic in nature. They themselves appear to be abstract before the eyes when magnified”, says he. Sarkar also produces diptyches and his work follows an ambitious scale.
Nabanita graduated from a city based art institution. She too, takes a delight in abstract painting. But her canvases are far too naïve to dexterously handle what she conceptualizes, although the city-life and the stress involved in it interest her. Srabanti Saha Das has undergone a vast change from what she had earlier produced, within a couple of years of leaving the art college. She has matured and is more painterly than ever. However, it feels that she would have done justice to her practice had she kept her choice of theme the same which she used to produce before – family albums and other things. Producing abstract art is perhaps not the ultimatum for an artist. We have consequently lost an indigenous Srabanti to one who is more focused towards commercial viability; catering to a sedate and gullible market.
Pintu Sikdar is still not over with his Masters Degree. Graduating from the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship, he has joined the Visual art Department at the Rabindra Bharati University, and as a consequence, the flavour of the former schooling has still not waned away from his work. What is striking is that apart from the traditional academic style, Pintu goes so far producing landscapes in bronze. One of his works comprises of a port scene, - one arrested moment- where the ferrymen busy with their respective work, is rendered in the truest possible mood. With masts jutting out in space and the rippling water forming the base for the work, it seems engaging. Debabrata Sarkars minimalist canvases are a cliché. The same applies to Raju Sarkar and Shyamali Halder.
Coming back once more to the point I have mentioned above: I was quite taken aback browsing through the catalogue – neither has it a catalogue essay, nor any detail about the artists and their schooling, barring their telephone numbers and postal addresses. Are these then the only criteria for an artist now? What is ludicrous is the fact that each of the works either reads ‘Untitled’ (printed as UNTITTLED, each time they appear) or ‘Composition’ (which has become COMPOSITATION owing to the absence of a proof reader). The only other work bearing a title is that of Debabrata Sarkar’s, which finally reads ‘VARITUAL SPACE’. Unable to discern any sense out of such a space, I left the gallery and made for home. |
