Late Bikash Bhattacharjee’s art on view

Emami Chisel Art is hosting a retrospective of Bikash Bhattacharjee’s works in Kolkata, a city that shaped his artistic philosophy. The late artist was famous for his Kolkata cityscapes and was equally known for his powerful portraits of ordinary people.

Born in Kolkata just a few years before India’s Partition and its attendant violent turn of events including communal killings, he had a tumultuous childhood as he also lost his father early. The uncertain times and the constant struggle for survival left a deep imprint of insecurity and empathy for the underprivileged on his mind. No surprise, they often figured in his works.

Simultaneously, childhood symbols like dolls and balloons recurred in his work. They became metaphors for his sense of loss and the suffering he witnessed around him during his childhood. His `dolls' series was indicative of human depravation. The works from his `tout' series were equally appreciated.

His portraits famously captured every day life on the city streets, his angst about the pain of Partition, and much more. He mostly painted what he saw around him and the way he perceived it, giving a whole new perspective and meaning to everyday happenings in his art. His subject matter was meticulously painted to every detail and invested with a sense of the dramatic.
Female beauty remained a prime preoccupation with him.

The female protagonists were a quaint mixture of sensuality and spirituality. However, he also created a multitude of characters in his canvases with an authentic milieu as a background, only heightening the drama. He not only executed portraits from day to day life, but also painted popular characters from films or theatre.

Often done in a recognizable photo-realistic style, his canvasses carried that trademark somber tone. In his paintings he made use of light & shade to great effect and imparted his own unique dimension to the composition. The artist had mastered the technique. In the process, he created a telling social commentary. His passionate and intense rendition of an ordinary situation charged it with a new set of emotions.

His finesse and ability to decipher and portray psychological undercurrents made Bikash Bhattacharjee one of India’s most remarkable artists of his times.