Calcutta Painters is celebrating its 45th anniversary with a huge exhibition titled An exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures on the occasion of 45th anniversary 1964-2009 (November 3-15) covering two floors of the Birla Academy of Art and Culture. Almost each and every inch of the walls is plastered with countless paintings, many dating back to 1964 when artists like Nikhil Biswas, Prakash Karmakar, Bijan Chowdhury, Rabin Mandal, Jogen Chowdhury and others decided to join hands and form a “communion of artists” because “an unappreciative society...treats writers and artists as aliens and outsiders.”

This was long before every flat was being turned into a makeshift gallery and artists were making a killing after living in penury for years. Calcutta Painters did not have a manifesto as such, but it was a conglomeration of artists who tried to break free of the shackles of the past to become part of the international scene. But as this exhibition demonstrates, in their effort to escape the influence of the “neo-Indian school”, the artists have fallen into another trap — that of the Western modernists — and most of them have not managed to develop ideas or a style of their own. Many of the artists whose works are on display died some time ago, and so one may feel that one is caught in a time warp, surrounded by paintings that were products of the late 1960s and 1970s. These artists had still not shaken off the influence of Cubism, Chagall and Klee, and their works look curiously dated.

Rabin Mandal’s single canvas of phantom figures notwithstanding, there are too many of his ‘primitive’ men and women here. Bijan Chowdhury’s paintings may have been inspired in part by Kalighat pats, but one cannot overlook the influence of Socialist Realism on his work in keeping with his political sympathies. Prakash Karmakar’s more recent landscapes with knobbly trees depicted against garish skies are on display (picture). Gopal Sanyal’s snake charmer is so typical of those times. There is a proliferation of Dhiraj Choudhury’s reed-thin ladies but only his beauty with a cat does not look jaded. Nikhil Biswas’s charcoal drawing of bodies falling headlong, however, has not lost any of its dynamism. Rebanta Goswami’s anthropomorphic feline couple adds a rare touch of humour to this collection of gloomy works.

Jogen Chowdhury’s work has evolved over the years to such a degree that his three dry pastel on paper drawings seem to belong to a different era. Of the sculptures, Bipin Goswami’s works are delightful. His large head seems to have been fashioned out of gourd. The man smoking the hookah also has a touch of the grotesque. His work does not have to strive hard to look different.