Trash to treasure
Partha Pratim Deb’s 3D artworks
Long before 3D art became popular in the artists’ parlance, Kolkata-based artist Partha Pratim Deb was involved with the medium and showcased the wonders of it. After finishing his education at Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan and MS University, Baroda, Deb began teaching art at an Agartala school in late 60s.
“Oil paints had not yet made a foray. I started working with locally available materials like fevicol, sawdust, wood, and objects of daily use as well as discarded ones in Bengali households,” recollects the 69-year old artist. At that time, most of the art fraternity didn’t recognise his work.
But one look at them now, they appear as the handiwork of a GenY artist displaying youthful, vibrant and unique charm. No wonder he has found a worthy audience at his latest exhibition in the capital.
Elucidating further on his conceptualisation, Deb says, “Visual creativity does not hold to any style or ‘ism’, but is an outcome of spontaneous playfulness happening as a process of introspection and submission. My concepts are abstract but have a certain fun element.”.
Deb, like his gurus, Nandalal Bose (viz the hand torn paper images), Benode Behari (viz the cut-and-paste paper collages) and Subramanyan (viz the toys made with found carved wood and leather pieces), enjoys the process of turning the discarded objects into images by playing with them. His colourful reconfiguration of once sought-after commodities into decontextualised images bear new meaning and have certain resemblances with Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg.
“There is immense joy in exhibiting Deb’s 3D images. Give them whatever name you wish, painted sculptures, sculptural assemblages, or retrieved found objects. They have the power of both evocation and provocation,” says Siddhartha Tagore, director, Artbull gallery.
Deb’s works show how easily and unobtrusively, he observes the world through the lens of personal preference. “An artist should be multi-dimensional and create for the sheer joy of it. A medium should never constrict his creative journey,” shares Deb.
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