Bhaskar Bhattacharya’s exhibition, “Apu Durga”, till April 7 at Chitrakoot was rather amusing. He has tried vaingloriously to live in the reflected glory of the Apu trilogy and the international photographic exhibition later published as the book, The Family of Man. Bhattacharya gathered celebrities from the literary, film and music world for the opening. They gushingly talked of him as an eminent pop-singer, a talent synthesizer-play. Bhattacharya apparently writes his own songs and puts them to music. But they had only muffled praises for his paintings. One would understand their point if one briefly considered the iconography, which includes everything that relates to the subject matter — form, which is the design or composition of a work of art; and content, which is the meaning transmitted — and looked at Bhattacharya’s acrylic paintings. The conclusion would be that these works remind one of ordinary calendars, book covers and political graffiti.

Sandip Sarkar

Colours of the mind

Sanket Shankar’s solo painting exhibition, at the Academy of Fine Arts (March 28 to April 3), displayed the artist’s impressive experiments with colours. Beginning with pen-and-ink sketches, the artist moved into monochromatic canvases — small, pithy, abstract works, each driven by its own intriguing pattern and invested with its distinctive character. The first series featured variations on blue-black, made layered and complex not only by the density of the colour applied but also by the way in which it was modulated by the crafty use of water. The unity of this collection was lent by the opening lines from Tagore’s Gitanjali Verse. 23, “Art thou abroad on this stormy night...?” (Aaji jharer raate tomar abhishar), which appeared on every painting. The links with Tagore were reinforced by Shankar’s intelligent handling of dark and light shades, reminiscent of Tagore’s later paintings. The second series of paintings, again modestly-sized, featured seascapes, using variations on blue with a hint of green. This progression from monochromatic to dichromatic canvases happened with an understated urbanity, without any explicit urge to make a statement. This quiet confidence, which had prevented Shankar’s work from appearing contrived, disappeared dramatically in the last few paintings, particularly in the rather trivial one with alphabets from different languages on it. Notwithstanding this shallow ending from a rather promising beginning, the exhibition was intelligently conceptualized and well-curated.

Somak Ghoshal