Empathic   diversity

One knows Abani Sen as a historical figure, but rarely gets to see his work. The Rightlines Gallery should be appreciated then for mounting his exhibition (August 24 to September 7). Although not very numerous, it includes instances of most of the stylistic angles in his oeuvre, so indeed becoming a mini retrospective. It is precisely for this reason of diversity that the viewer is able to sense the process that shaped modern sensibilities in the early decades of the 20th century and persisted through the middle ones. Against the popularly accepted predominance of the Bombay scene, it also reminds one of Bengal’s contribution to modernity.

Abani Sen’s formative years in the later ’20s were framed by the entrenchment of colonial-time academic realism and the nostalgic Revivalist school, while an urgency arose to break away from both. Here Sen’s effort shows a similarity to his bolder contemporaries associated with Shantiniketan. Unlike Benodebehari Mukherjee and Ramkinkar Baij, who quite soon developed a cogent individual idiom and a radically innovative one, respectively, Sen continued to oscillate between several aesthetic options. Thus, on the one hand, his work reveals the sources and process of this evolution.

On the other hand, his empathic humanism and attuning to everyday life imbues it with authenticity as well as allows for the differences among his aesthetic approaches to integrate to a large extent. The collection so includes several charcoal, crayon and ink portraits that still carry the academic realist foundation, whereas the insightful directness of observation and psychological closeness gives them a natural contemporariness. Even at this point, the artist shifts from harder precision to an intensely brief image — soft or angular, and to a passionate hesitancy emerging from under a mesh of clear lines.  Some depictions of animals and village people have absorbed elements of Far-Eastern brushing along with the curly, mannered strokes typical to the Santiniketan tradition, lightening the same, however, thanks to the realistic expressiveness that respects life on the modest plane. The water colour landscapes, which range from casual to ones endowed with dynamic power, prove Sen’s ability to integrate in his genuinely felt experience of the immediate the academic basis elevated by Cezannesque traits that give it effects of both impressiveness and probing. The lone oil on canvas introduces yet another formal ingredient which combines the stylised geometry of contouring in the figure that was derived from Post-Cubist Picasso and the animated abstraction of the background.

Cultured gamut

The fourth anniversary annual show at Galerie Sara Arakkal (August 25 to September 8) is again a vast affair with seventy participating artists from all over the country. The level is better than before, less inferior works having been accommodated and the dominant quality being of cultured, if not ground-breaking idioms.

There is a presence of senior moderns with a wonderful painting of K G Subramanian and more predictable examples from Sunil Sas, Shivaprasanna, Balan Nambiar, Badri Narayan, R B Bhaskaran, Yusuf Arakkal, S G Vasudev, Jai Zharotia, Nayanna Kanodia and Rini Dhumal. Abstraction is offered much space as well, with K M Adimoolam and Achuthan Kudallur and the younger Anwar, Harshavardhana and Nupur Kundu. Contemporary contributions may not stand out in the crowded and somewhat chaotic display, nevertheless it offers interesting images by Shanthamani M, Surekha, Gopinath S, Ravikumar Kashi, R M Palaniappan, C F John, T M Aziz and Ratan Kanji. The names of Rani Rekha, Varna Sindhu, Shibu Arakkal, Satish Sholapur, Mohammad Rizvan, Devaraj B and Padma Reddy should be mentioned too.

Urban rhythms

Dance and the City was an interesting effort by the French photographer Anne Maniglier, who juxtaposes shots of urban spaces with contemporary dance scenes, the Bangalore sequences having been done in collaboration with the Shiri Dance Company (Alliance Francaise, August 24 to September 3). Rather than illustrating external links, the artist wishes to bring out the essence of the structure of the city, its ethos, dynamic behaviour and atmosphere.

Her panoramas as well as close-ups are often shaky and rudimentary thereby showcasing the actual living experience. The dance part of the diptychs, which subtly picks up urban rhythms, may emphasise architectonics by capturing fragments of regular or angled poses and gestures. It may focus on the chaotic simultaneity of things in the happening. It may also offer an abstract mood by blurring the figures against a reductive, monochromatic ground imbued with trajectories and diffusion of light. If not always spectacular, the works are sensitive and authentically expressive. One appreciated the Indian instances and in particular the work with simple red and white buildings complemented by a gently statuesque dancer in a long robe.

Formalism
The latest exhibition at Time & Space (August 27 to September 1) had different kinds of work connected by their formalist preoccupation. Kanika Mukherjee, who studied art, does pastels with dense, animated landscapes. Between clear, nearly parallel strokes and mistiness, they acquire an easy pleasantness. Ashish Hazra’s images are evidently a joyous play with the structure and mood of architecture, which is his profession.  The pictures are collaged from fragments of photographs with a modernist preference for basic geometry and even surfaces of bright colour. Among flatness and pronounced recesses, a feel of the whole being framed by itself and by illumination, is generated in a cultured, light way without becoming more than that.