Ganesh Haloi along with Bikash Bhattacharjee’s daughter Balaka, son Bibhash and widow Parbati at the late artist’s retrospective on Monday. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

That Bikash Bhattacharjee was the quintessential artist of Calcutta was underscored once again at his retrospective exhibition organised by Emami Chisel Art to celebrate his 69th birth anniversary with an equal number of paintings, drawings and graphic works that opened at Emami Towers on Monday evening.

Few other artists knew Calcutta as well as Bhattacharjee, who grew up in the Shyampukur area, and made good use of his knowledge by vividly depicting its chequer board of terraces, labyrinthine lanes, crumbling buildings, red light areas and tram lines on which cattle did not mind lazing.

Bhattacharjee had a genius for transporting these mundane scenes anchored to everyday reality to a realm where they were sometimes indistinguishable from dreams and inhabited a more intense reality. Ironically, this process was facilitated by his remarkable skill at capturing the moment, down to the very last detail. His paintings looked uncannily like photographs without really being so. Many of the men and women he painted had voids in place of eyes or mysterious dark orbs with a dangerous glint, quite like the eyes of the undead.

Little wonder that Bhattacharjee was a well-loved artist who had become a household name in his lifetime not only in Calcutta but all over the country. More than 400 people, including senior and younger artists, had turned up at the opening of his retrospective exhibition. His widow Parbati, son Bibhas, daughter Balaka and brother Haradhan were also there.

Ganesh Haloi, who opened the exhibition, said he used to be close to the artist and recalled the fortitude with which he would face adversities. Even when he had broken his femur he did not behave in a helpless manner. Back in the 1970s, Bhattacharjee used to teach in the Government College of Art and Craft for five years on an ad hoc basis. Those were days when the 1940-born plain-speaking artist, like most artists of that generation, never dreamt of selling any paintings.

The exhibition has on display many of Bhattacharjee’s drawings of Degas-like nudes done when he was still a student in the 1960s. There are two from the famous Doll series — a doll sinking in the quicksands of despair, and another hanging for life from a clothesline. All the works carry labels with the year of execution stated.

Emami Chisel art has brought out a catalogue that carries 68 of the 69 exhibits, early press clippings, other valuable facts and figures and some interesting photographs of the artist in his youth and at the time of his illness before his death in December 2006.