Romantic terrain: An acrylic on canvas by Subrata Chowdhury

Having acquired a level of artistic excellence over the long years, Subrata Chowdhury’s creativity may be said to have transcended the bounds of applied art in which he received his formal training over two decades ago. The imagery projected by the artist in his recently-ended exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts has been dubbed ‘Surreal’. Considering that surrealism is far from a water-tight genre of art but has its ramifications spreading into the romantic terrain, there should be little room for quibbling over the chosen denotation. Chowdhury, a deft wielder of the brush in the acrylic medium, paints mermaids, half-bird-half-woman and half-fawn-half-woman forms engaged in mute conversation with other creatures, such as snakes and crocodiles crawling or fish floating around. The extended spectacle of such imaginary dialogues adds up to scenes of an undefinable yet eloquent communication. Chowdhury transcribes his secret emotions and impulses through a limited range of cool hues, including shades of green and blue, occasionally contrasted against orange and red humanoid figures.

The denizens of Chowdhury’s pictorial world are fantasy-laden and are interpretable as personal myths associated with a faraway age of hazy memories. Above all, it is the lyrical mood of the artist’s delicate delineations that casts a moonlike spell on the viewer’s mind.

Bageshree Dutta’s oeuvre of water-colour and mixed media paintings is currently on view at the Academy of Fine Arts. This writer has long been familiar with her work which, unfortunately, had not been exhibited except in group shows. The present solo thus allows the viewer to savour a representative selection of the major thematic types explored by the painter. A student of Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, he carries on the mantle of Bandyopadhyay’s guru Nandalal Bose. He has a degree of perfection and technical virtuosity which many aficionados feel should not be allowed to fall into disuse before reckless experimentalism passes out in the natural course. Dutta’s impressive depictions in Diganta, Door and Godhuli, as well as her figural compositions, including Sonam, Aaye Ghum and Danpite, deserve special mention.

An exhibition mounted by the gallery names-An.Art (207-A Rash Behari Avenue) currently showcases works of Anirban Seth, who in the span of a few years has carved out a niche for himself by fusing technology with aesthetics. With an admirable grasp of the power of rhythm and decorative patterns, the young artist has projected leather painting as a special field of visual art, forging a link with the artists of the post-cave dwellers’ era when paper was yet to be invented.

Painting on well-tanned sheep, calf and camel leather, Seth has been able to draw the attention of art enthusiasts across the country by dint of the originality which allows him to express emotional nuances through the texture obtained. The preparation of leather as pictorial surface, he tells us, is not only time-consuming and laborious, but also permits the artist to work only in the humidity-free winter months. The flowers-and-vase series in the current offerings shows the plastic quality of Seth’s art.