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| A work by Pradip Maitra (top); Vasant Wankhede (below). Picture by Aranya Sen |
The most impressive works at the inaugural exhibition of the Harrington Street Arts Centre at 8 Ho Chi Minh Sarani are the most understated collages by an equally self-effacing Vasant Wankhede. Unheard of in Calcutta, this Mumbai-based artist with large, sombre eyes behind thick lenses is the very antithesis of the artist as a celebrity the art boom of the decade we left behind had spawned by the dozen.
His works created with layers of textile in faded shades of blue, buff, grey and ochre, often with a dash of red running across their rectangular expanse, are meditative and tranquil that have no parallels in the visible world. “They are natural forms and textures. My mind becomes totally blank and things start emerging out of it,” says Wankhede, who has been working on collages for the past 40 years.
Initially he used paper, but when he was in hospital he discovered gauze that has “transparency as well as opacity”. Gauze — concealing and revealing at the same time — and the subtly ruched surface of textile, act as registers of his thought process.
Wankhede’s works speak in hushed tones that demand as much from the artist as the viewer, who has to make a conscious effort to keep himself tuned.
The second unknown factor is Antonio E’Costa, a resident of Goa born in Kenya. Warm tropical hues, varied textures and broken surfaces build up an impression of Miles Davis’s sultry riffs, quite in keeping with this colourful personality.
But what took viewers’ breath away was the installation titled Synapse created by children of Akshar school guided by Samir Roy. From the masks to the procession of rag dolls and the canopy of “portraits”, the signature of each young participant stands out in this large collaborative effort.
Apart from these, the other artists on the centre’s roster are renowned. The exhibition is a homage to Paritosh Sen and has an outstanding head by the deceased artist, a spitting image of Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera. Jogen Chowdhury’s sinuous lines create a defeated Bakasur in the Kalighat pat tradition, and the artist’s unmistakable signature can also be discovered in his image of the Stork Demon’s claws like a zigzag bolt of lightning frozen by rigor mortis.
Krishen Khanna exploits the expressive power of lines in his three works charged with kinetic energy, stark and bare though they are. Swathes of blue, green and black that dominate and drip down Prabhakar Kolte’s paintings are unable to mask the luminous shades that appear from the sides. Are Ganesh Haloi’s paper works landscapes or states of mind? This query is crucial to the aesthetic pleasure of viewing his works.
Daroz has used white porcelain to create a surface of varied textures and contours. Framed and backlit they look like the relics of a lost world. Laxma Goud’s bedizened women and Himmat Shah’s modernist heads define the aesthetic reach of this exhibition.
The 43rd annual exhibition of the Birla Academy of Art & Culture belies our expectations of confronting three floors of the building crammed with works occupying every inch of available space, vertical and horizontal. This time, too, there are too many works but at least the process of picking and choosing has made a visible difference to its quality.
Everybody who is anybody in Calcutta’s art world, and even some outside it like Jahangir Sabavala, Anju Chaudhuri and Uday Mandal feature in this show as usual.
There are some surprises though. Pradip Maitra seems to have broken out of steam engines and boats to explore a dark urban world, hitherto untouched by those who use the medium of watercolour. Kishore Chatterjee has made innovative use of space by scribbling on the body parts of the languorous male. Chandan Das has returned after a break with his fine wood engraving.