Glimpses from Bimal Kundu’s ‘Etching Tranquillity’

From the lanes of north Kolkata he had started his journey as an artist. Enriched with the clay sculptures of neighbourhood Kumartuli and prolific schooling of the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, Bimal Kundu derived his semi-realistic style that made his sculptures so popular and enchanting through decades. His second solo show Etching Tranquillity, organised by Gallery Artistmindz with 21 sculptures and 23 sketches, took place at the Odisha State Museum, Bhubaneswar from August 27 to September 11, 2022. This was Bimal Kundu’s second solo show after his first solo show in New Delhi in 1992.

The show started with a grand inauguration by Ashok Chandra Panda, minister of science and technology, Govt. of Odisha. The presence of bureaucrats, intellectuals, artists and art lovers at the time of inauguration proves the appeal of Bimal Kundu’s artistic genius. The most appreciated sculptures were the Musician series, Durga, Reclining Ganesh, the Ox, and a life-size Reclining Woman. In the Musician series there was a man (Panditji) playing a sitar. His gesture and appeal had a close resemblance with Pandit Ravi Shankar. Whereas women playing bina and tanpura had resemblance with Goddess Saraswati. The Ox rendered the mighty power and masculinity that the artist had experienced in his childhood days through the lanes of north Kolkata. Among the Head series the most popular was the Durga head. Bimal’s Durga was done exactly in the traditional style of Bengal, namely Aat Bangla style with a minimal approach but having a divine touch and grandeur of Goddess Durga. The faces were realistic with sharp nose but there were no eyes or distinct lips.

The artist’s brilliance of arranging cubic plates one after another to create round, oval, obese surfaces was well established in The Ganesha. The life-size sculpture of a Reclining Woman was placed at the pivot point of the exhibition hall that became the centre of gravity for the entire show. The bronze sculptures were minimalistic in approach with a touch of cubism and tenderness harmonizing modernity with traditionalism. The unique surface finishing, called ‘patina’ added speciality to these sculptures. This is a chemical process where according to the need of colour copper-nitrate or sulphur-nitrate or iron-nitrate had been used. This patina helps to maintain the colour and lustre of the sculptures for more than 100 years.

The sketches on the other hand reflected great resemblance with the form and style of Bimal’s sculptures . These sketches were mainly done during the days of Covid. The insecurity, depression and desertedness that had knocked the artist invariably in the lockdown period were well reflected on these pen and ink sketches. Due to a confined life between the four walls the artist could not even acquire raw materials to do sculptures. But that could not stop his creative urge. Fortunately, he found an old drawing book, completely unused, and he started doing these sketches with pen. The framing and display added a sophistication to these black-and-white sketches.

The agony of socio-economic status not only provided him subjects but also helped to explore a new dimension of Bimal’s artistic genius.

Now the story behind this show was very unusual. The additional chief secretary and development commissioner of Odisha government, Pradip Kumar Jena, who is also a patron of art, took initiative to organise this show in Bhubaneswar with a vision to bring the people of Odisha in touch of modern concept of sculpture. He came to Kolkata on an official tour sometime during mid-2021, visited Bimal’s studio and he was so impressed by the sculptures and sketches that he proposed for a retrospective show in Odisha. But the artist was suffering from a severe back pain, unable to stand or sit for a long time and doing his work. But Jena was determined, he himself showed the artist some exercises that finally cured him within a couple of months. Becoming steady, Bimal started working for the show.

Jena prepared a new modern gallery in the State Museum of Odisha to promote this retrospective. His mission proved to be successful when the show received great appreciation from the local visitors and art lovers from different genre. Many of them, who are mainly fond of traditional Odisha stone sculptures, found interest to have these modern sculptures of Bimal Kundu in their personal collection also. However, unlike Bengal, Odisha preferred Bimal’s sculptures more than his sketches.

By an art critic