<p>The trams, the hand-pulled rickshaws, the yellow cabs and the heritage buildings — artist Purnendu Mandal’s paintings portraying the city of joy have it all. What is also has are traces of modern Kolkata juxtaposed with this old world charm reflecting a transition and his love for the city which has evolved over time.<br /><br /></p>.<p>His series of 17 paintings entitled ‘Aesthetic Memories’ currently on display in the capital are all about Kolkata and its changing cityscape.<br /><br />“My paintings are about the city I studied in. It reflects my 22-year-long journey to become an artist. The works have all the elements that define Kolkata and also show how the age-old practice of a pulled rickshaw continues to ply at a time when our prime minister (Narendra Modi) talks of smart cities,” Mandal tells Metrolife.<br /><br />“This should not be the scenario, especially in a metropolitan city, at a time when the waves of modernisation have swept across the nation,” he adds. <br /><br />The works, acrylic on canvas, are painted in vivid shades. They show the rays of first light which lighten up the city, a rainy day, a stormy day, a busy street and also the scene on a regular morning — all giving a realistic feeling to the onlooker.<br /><br />“I have taken the components common to Kolkata and placed them along figments of my imagination to create the works. I have painted the city’s climate by highlighting its beauty on a rain-soaked day as well as shown how it looks when the first rays of the <br />sun lights up its lanes,” he explains.<br /><br />Ask him why he chose Kolkata as his muse, and pat comes the reply: “An artist can best paint, with intricacies, what he knows and understands perfectly...and Kolkata, for me, remains that.”<br /><br />The show is on at the Triveni Art Gallery until September 9.<br /><br /></p>
<p>The trams, the hand-pulled rickshaws, the yellow cabs and the heritage buildings — artist Purnendu Mandal’s paintings portraying the city of joy have it all. What is also has are traces of modern Kolkata juxtaposed with this old world charm reflecting a transition and his love for the city which has evolved over time.<br /><br /></p>.<p>His series of 17 paintings entitled ‘Aesthetic Memories’ currently on display in the capital are all about Kolkata and its changing cityscape.<br /><br />“My paintings are about the city I studied in. It reflects my 22-year-long journey to become an artist. The works have all the elements that define Kolkata and also show how the age-old practice of a pulled rickshaw continues to ply at a time when our prime minister (Narendra Modi) talks of smart cities,” Mandal tells Metrolife.<br /><br />“This should not be the scenario, especially in a metropolitan city, at a time when the waves of modernisation have swept across the nation,” he adds. <br /><br />The works, acrylic on canvas, are painted in vivid shades. They show the rays of first light which lighten up the city, a rainy day, a stormy day, a busy street and also the scene on a regular morning — all giving a realistic feeling to the onlooker.<br /><br />“I have taken the components common to Kolkata and placed them along figments of my imagination to create the works. I have painted the city’s climate by highlighting its beauty on a rain-soaked day as well as shown how it looks when the first rays of the <br />sun lights up its lanes,” he explains.<br /><br />Ask him why he chose Kolkata as his muse, and pat comes the reply: “An artist can best paint, with intricacies, what he knows and understands perfectly...and Kolkata, for me, remains that.”<br /><br />The show is on at the Triveni Art Gallery until September 9.<br /><br /></p>
