‘Odyssey - A Journey into Time with the Collection’

The Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata, on eve of its 45th anniversary, is hosting a grand exhibition of artworks collected by the art-loving couple, Basant Kumar and Sarala Birla, over a lifetime.

‘Odyssey - A Journey into Time with the Collection’ includes ancient and medieval, modern and contemporary works – sculptures, paintings, antiques, rare historic letters and manuscripts apart from an impressive collection of international art. There are also on view miniature paintings and textiles.

The collection compiled over 60 years, is on display, albeit in part at the historic institution they founded. The rest of the artworks remain within closed-door rooms. What was started in the early 1940s as a hobby gathered momentum over times, to shape up as a gigantic collection that at some stage needed its own space.

The chairperson of the academy, Sarala Birla, has been quoted as saying: “We were buying mostly Western art in the beginning without realizing that Indian art is unparalleled and that first we have to discover art from our country before we look any further. So, from the late 1940s we decided to turn our attention to buying mostly art from India. Those days, works of art were easily obtainable. Once a month we would visit Jamini Roy. Once we bought four of his paintings for mere 500 rupees.”

The academy has a collection of sculptures in stone and metal from different corners of India, spanning from the 2nd century BC to the 17th century CE. While a wide variety of stone, including sandstone, basalt, schist, chlorite, granite and marble were used some of the sculptures were infused with pre-classical mannerisms, whereas a few others were in classical idiom, elaborates the director of the Academy, T K Biswas. Who has curated the exhibition along with Nanak Ganguly and Shaheen Merali.

The terracottas’ collection includes those from the periods of Maurya, Sunga, Gupta, Kushana, as well as post-Gupta periods. The miniature paintings section is comprised of Persian, Mughal, Pahari and Rajasthani miniatures. There is no specific classification of the modern and contemporary art’s section, with the emphasis being more on Bengal school and the Tagores. Works by several 20th century artists are also on view. The International Art section includes works by André Masson, M R Dartel, Ben Cunningham, Franz Kupka, Raymond Héndler, Maurice Golubov, Henry C Pearson, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Murray Israel among others.