The trio of Subrata Dutta, Sarmistha Maiti and Swapan Kumar Mallick, under the quaint name of Clique Click, exhibited 24 frames under the equally pretentious title, ‘Shades of Hallucination’, at the Academy of Fine Arts last week. Though some “clicks” looked “got up” — to use local jargon — the small exhibition was eye-catching enough. Mythical Safeguard by Subrata Dutta fought for attention with Frames Within Frames by Swapan Kumar Mallick, and Hold Me Tight by Sarmistha Maiti. And hallucinatory enough, too. If only they could cut down on the hyperbole as manifest in their leaflet: “…Penetrating deep into the metaphor, we nurture the various shapes entrapped in the web of existence and the whirlpool of emotions…”
Anil Grover
Sekhar Kar richly deserves the offer to mount his fourth solo exhibition in town, at names-AN.art, the newest gallery for contemporary art. Sekhar’s participation in recent group shows at other galleries was hailed with much enthusiasm, while critics praised his use of vibrant colours for designing mixed figurative areas in space. The young painter is chary of translating his pictorial concepts in entirely abstract terms, although it is clear enough from his constructions that he is groping for a non-objective idiom to give fuller expression to his ideas. His current oeuvre includes the image of a standing man in mixed media, a piece that bears out my observations.
Samir Dasgupta
Rabindra Sangeet has its splendid identity and one must treat it with the veneration it deserves, but Arohi’s 20th annual programme ‘Ananda Sandhya’ at Rabindra Sadan on August 3 lacked this realisation. Loud keyboard accompaniment dampened the mood and essence of the inaugural chorus song Hridaye mandrilo damaru guru guru under the direction of Dr Srikumar Chattopadhyay. The unmelodious, harsh voice of Chattopadhyay and lack of uniformity of timbre in higher and lower octave failed to do justice to the song Amar byatha jokhon. Ke dilo abar aghat by Irabati Basu was too daring a venture for the singer. The only memorable part of the evening was the recitation by Soumitro Chattopadhyay, using his rich, warm tone to expose the lushness of the monsoon in Tagore’s Bristi pore tapur tupur. The announcements, however, lacked editing.
Sharmila Basu Thakur
