Rediscovering an ancient art technique

Brush strokes

One of the few living masters of the Bengal school of art, 74-year-old Ajoy Ghose is presenting his work in the Capital for the first time.

Ajoy practices the traditional wash technique of painting brought to India by the Japanese and developed by doyens like Abanindranath Tagore and Nandalal Bose. It is hardly used by artists nowadays. 22 of his works, exhibiting this technique, will be on display at Gallerie Ganesha till October 10.

Born in Bengal in 1938 and educated at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata under Dhirendranath Brahma, Satyendranath Bandyopadhyay and Benode Behari Mukherjee, Ghose has been Member of Faculty Council, University of Kolkata and Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting - Indian style at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata from 1984 to 1998. He is also the Founder Member of the contemporary Bengal Artists Group.

Director, Gallerie Ganesha and curator of the show, Shobha Bhatia says, “With all the emphasis on contemporary and modern art these days, somewhere the old traditional techniques of Indian art are getting lost.

So it is important to create an awareness of important landmarks in the evolution of Indian art amongst the younger art viewers. Ajoy Ghose- an unsung master of the Bengal School of Art- has remained true to the labour intensive and highly skilled technique of wash paintings, something our younger artists have chosen to ignore in this fast-paced lifestyle.”

The traditional Bengal school watercolours (wash technique) were brought to India by the Japanese. In 1903, Japanese scholar and art critic Okakura sent his two artist disciples Yokoyama Taikan and Hisbida Sbunso to India, and they stayed with the Tagores in Calcutta.

Abanindranath observed how Taikan, using a large, flat brush spread water over a carefully painted and highly finished surface giving it a range of soft and delicate tonalities.

Later, Abanindranath developed the technique further. After a thin transparent layer of watercolour, the painting was literally dipped in water (the Japanese never did it) which washed away some of the colour, and yet another transparent colour-wash was given on it. In this way, after successive colour and water-washes, different colours fused, bringing out tender tones, replacing the stern geometry of European pictorial space with a dream-like timelessness.

It is in this context that the solo show by Ghose assumes importance as he is one of the few living artists who still practises this technique.

He has beautifully recreated stories from Indian mythology – from Ahilya and Savitri, Karna-Kunti and Karna Parashuram, to depicting divinities like Durga, Ganesha and Shiva – in subtle colours yet finely nuanced lines and delicate features.

His technical expertise in space division, use of dimensional forms and lines, use of soft colours indicates his unique conceptual approach and modulation of inherited skills to the development of a visual language that is definitely modern despite being anchored in tradition.