The works speak volumes

Bengal artists

When it comes to art, its geographical origin is one of its strongest influences.

This point was proved at the Gallery Blue Spade, where an exhibition of artists from Bengal named, Is It All Bengal After All? was held.

The exhibition showcased more than twenty different artists with the only thread binding them being that of geographic origin.

All artists had origins in Bengal but artwork were as different as chalk and cheese. The popular media being mixed media on paper, the art was clearly dominated by monotone colours representing different aspects.

Some of them were obvious depictions of the state of Bengal in abstract and others were more subtle, using mere symbols, such as the big bindi, hibiscus flowers etc.

But the flavour of North-East remained untouched and consistent in all the paintings.
The portraits of women in the collection made of charcoal were some of popular themes in the exhibition, apart from flowers, village scenes, traditional and folk designs, landscape, nature that were commonly depicted in the paintings.

The exhibition showcased a mix of well-known and new names in the art world, including Jogen Chowdhury, Prashanta Sahu, Sudeshna Aich, Prodosh Paul, Arnab Mukherjee, Paritosh Sen and Lalu Prasad Shaw.

Said Neeraj Dugar, the gallery owner, “Even though all these artists have the same origin, you can see how varied their art work is, making you wonder if it’s all Bengal, after all?, but as you go through the art, one after another, you would be able to appreciate the fact that the art is beyond Bengal.”

The most striking aspect of the exhibition was how each art encapsulated in itself contradictions, the physical and the metaphysical, gross and the subtle, monotone and colour, traditional and contemporary, all coming together to punch in an esoteric experience of Bengal in abstract.

So at the end of the day, it’s all about Bengal, after all!