• 
• 
• 
• 

The Creative Bond

The Calcutta Painters’ annual group show is recently held at the Mon Art Gallery, Kolkata. Later this show will travel to Singapore. On this occasion young art critic Sarmistha Maiti recounts the history of the group and analyses the present exhibit against this historical backdrop.

Calcutta Painters, the name has gradually evolved to hold historic importance in the art circle of India. The birth of this group was sometime in the early 1960s when the city’s the then young, exuberant and enthusiastic artists came together in a close bond and got ready to pick up the courageous challenge to experiment and innovate new directions and redefined the trend of contemporary Indian art. Over these forty years the endeavour of this group has left great influence on the practising artists across the country and does hold significant stance to shape the course of development of art since the sixties. As Samir Dasgupta in his last writing, titled Reinterpreting Modernism on Calcutta Painters, stated, “Here was art born of an inner conviction of feelings, seeking to break free of tradition in its choice of subjects, making bold statements, exploring newer visual expressions, and being imbued at the same time with a humanist approach and personal myths that seemed to redefine the Indian approach to modernism.”

This November, Kolkata got the opportunity to witness the 43rd Annual Show of the group at the Mon Art Gallery, Kolkata and the credit to curate the show goes to an international gallery of Singapore, Artmosaic Gallery that has taken further initiative to give the show a global visibility. Artmosaic has actually split the show into two halves. The show that has been held in Kolkata from November 13-22, 2007 will again be showcased in Singapore from December 1-22, 2007. The group that had been originally moved by Nikhil Biswas, Gopal Sanyal, Bijan Chowdhury, Prakash Karmakar and Rabin Mondal now share the space for twenty artists (both painters and sculptors) and has also given a platform to the younger generation to join them that includes in the list of twenty. The 43rd Annual Exhibition of the Calcutta Painters showcased the works of Niren Sengupta, Prakash Karmakar, Sibaprasad Karchaudhuri, Dhiraj Choudhury, Barun Roy, Tapan Mitra, Wasim Kapoor, Isha Mohammad, Rabin Mondal, Bijan Choudhury, Jogen Chowdhury, Anita Roy Chowdhury, Surajit Das, Tapan Ghosh, Amitabh Sengupta, Dwijen Gupta, Susanta Chakraborty, Subrata Ghosh, Debabrata Chakrabarti and Bipin Goswami.

The idea of coming together on the same platform was certainly because they had felt for the same pulse at that historical conjecture but the way each one chose to execute his/her expression was geared by the drive of individualism. From the initial phase of post-independent years in India, the artists had categorically initiated to reject the idea of imitating natural realities. Art had crossed the level of simply being a retinal exercise, instead became the blooming arena of cerebral exercise and a thoroughly intellectual practice. Calcutta Painters play a very significant role in propagating this transitional phase both in the ways of conceiving and conceptualizing ideas through various media of visual arts and also brought about the difference in the ways of seeing and perceiving. Does the spirit of philosophizing the entire perspective of modernism with broader connotation of individualization still remain among the artists of the group in the new millennium?

Well, the Annual Show of Calcutta Painters this year can be treated as a catalyst that propels the journey of all the participating members in the realm of creativity for all these years and more precisely what subtlety each of their works carry when it has actually crossed the border of the local periphery to the global sphere. In their very own idiomatic language, this group has been giving the art lovers a thriving breathing space to communicate with the uniqueness of expression and this exhibition is no exception in any way. In the post-modern era when art has already traversed through the stages of abstractionism, neo-surrealism and most prominently the installation art, Calcutta Painters has borne their very own tradition and brought forward a re-reading of modernism within this entire gamut of rapid shifting concepts and expressions in this show. Be it an art-piece of Rabin Mondal, Jogen Chowdhury, Prakash Karmakar or Dhiraj Choudhury, the whole idea of collision between figurative and non-representational is completely wiped out because each one of them is a creative master to blend both where the figural forms are finely weaved in the non-representational visuals. The others in the group too hold this distinctive tenet to play with the criticality of human emotions and the turbulence of natural forces in the vibrant language as signifier and signified by toning in tune the abstract form with figurative proficiency. Though the younger generation of the group has inclined more towards non-figurative abstractions like we get to see in the works of Subrata Ghosh and Anita Roy Chowdhury, yet they too have not deviated from the central thrust the group has been perpetuating in its womb to make way for this long journey.

The show being arranged once again in Singapore adds another feather to the accomplishment of this group though individually most of the artists of Calcutta Painters’ group have a widely acclaimed fame. But the surviving of a group in today’s fast transforming context in itself is a big challenge and calls for applauding rewards for its consistent performance. To conclude with, the words of Samir Dasgupta, “The group thus stands today like a lighthouse along the path of several aspiring moderns…” needs no other raison d'être to bring about the essence of the Calcutta Painters as an assemblage since its inception till the present day’s execution.