Works by Partha Pratim Deb and (below) Kartick Chandra Pyne

Aakriti Art gallery brings together two senior and respected artists — the 1931-born Kartick Chandra Pyne and the 1943-born Partha Pratim Deb in an exhibition titled Leela.

The former has been ill for some time now, and the latter in spite of his creativity was better known as a teacher. But Pyne’s illness has never been a hindrance and his works with an intriguing mix of mystery and childlike simplicity continue to fascinate.

Deb’s work has always been marked by playfulness, but as in Pyne, these new paintings are marked by an ambiguity that bring the two closer to each other.

Lines have been the strong point of Deb’s drawings, but here it is his bright colours that first catch the eye. Green, yellow, red, the artist uses them all and in close proximity of each other. Deb lets himself go as female balloons float in the air, a man waits for a cataclysm to happen and a huge wave of colours threatens to overwhelm the canvas.

Pyne’s imagery is spare and has a strong element of fantasy. The pitiable lion in the Durga image looks up at his mistress as he daintily touches the asura. This could easily have come out of a child’s drawing book, only there is much method involved here. The most magnificent painting is that of the peacock with its fantail unfurled before an old gas light — an epiphanic image of Calcutta that could only happen in a dream. And dreamlike is one adjective that is particularly appropriate in describing Pyne’s work.

Be it the horses or the hermaphrodite creature they seem to belong to a sequence of dreams. This effect is heightened by Pyne’s brushwork. He seems to scrub the paint on the canvas instead of applying it smoothly, giving it an uneven surface. Pyne is not capable of working fast any longer, but age has not diminished his ability to create arresting imagery.