Gallery K2’s exhibition on drawings (September 3 to 23) brought together artists who are well known for the facility and felicity with which they can manipulate the line, others, who are not known at all, and a third category of artists who are rank amateurs. K.G. Subramanyan and the late Bikash Bhattacharjee are no doubt master draughtsmen, although their styles are radically different from each other. Paresh Maity became well-known as a watercolourist at an early age. Hindu gods and goddesses feature regularly in Jayasri Burman’s works.

Bhattacharjee could make forms come to life with a few masterly strokes of his pencil or brush. He did so in these three exhibits: the primitive Adam and Eve, a clown with the eyes of a fly, and the impromptu sketch of a woman with a cup of coffee (picture). A few dabs of paint and Subramanyan creates the doggie, charming but far from cute. Paresh Maity’s drawing with the “cubist” face and billing and cooing birds is no different from many of his recent paintings, although drained of colour. Actually, the two less known artists fare better. Ranjan Mukherjee’s nudes are wonderful exercises in academic drawing. Mukherjee wields the charcoal with confidence. Ritendra Roy’s architectural drawings on Nepali handmade paper are also competently executed.