Beauty without expression is boring — Ralph Waldo Emerson True, we agree. On the same tangent, a picture is worth a thousand words, as it tells a tale. And if face becomes an index of mind, while the woman a manifestation of nature, then it evokes a matrix of elegant aesthetics on the canvas. Armed with myriad designs on nari and prakriti in his vault of creativity and bold use of brushstrokes, low-profile but talented artist Asit Ghara comes alive through his series of paintings, currently on display at Kolkata’s Chemould Art Gallery on Park Street.
The solo show is only the second installment from his widely acclaimed Expression series. “The inaugural one was exhibited at the same venue back in 2007. This is my fifth solo show,” says the artist. Unambiguously, an epitome of simplicity personified, Ghara is a man of few words but his works never fall silent on the senses. There is no dull moment in his 41 wood-framed pieces. The artistic splurge is rather resplendent with a rich mix of earthy hues. A vivid palette rules all along the visual rhapsody, which is eye-soothing and flows like a silken lyrical ballad, having been mounted up one after another in a row. The water colour scheme on paper spindles around a card of nature-borne shades like the radiant reds, bright greens, sunny yellows, brilliant blues, velvety violets, et al. Varying in different sizes, the average measurements range from a 10-and-1/2” X 10-and-1/2” to 22” X 22”.
With female faces reigning supreme in his oeuvre, his previous expression stories primarily dabbled into emotional outbursts of sorrow, pain, agony, angst, sobbing, choking and so on. Now the teary-eyed “weeping willows” alias good-natured, delicate, submissive women have learnt to straighten their heads, smoothen their collar-creases, stiffen their shoulders and stand tall like a strong individual to literally call the shots from a business boardroom to their personal bedroom.
“Yes, I do admit that earlier, there was this constant preponderance of melancholia into my array of expressive specimens. But now the focus has been logically shifted towards a growth of positivity, brimming with immense possibilities,” ascertains the painter.
“A ray of gleaming hope always crosses the sky to precipitate optimism for women’s welfare. For, they are no longer considered the weaker sex, despised and subdued in a dark corner, but hailed as a formidable force, which can readily brandish swords to fight for justice and articulate opinions for their own cause. They are empowered to turn the tables in their favour and tame the wild, unruly tempest within their fists. It’s not about the muscle power alone. One also needs to have a sharp, gritty mind to win a game of glory, eventually,” he further elaborates.
It is a known fact that women are drawn into parallels with the teeming aspects of affection, attraction, love and nature. “The common reason is that both verdant nature and the fairer, feminine sex bear each other’s reflections — almost like a mirror-image — and perform similar kinds of roles of conceiving and caring. For Mother Nature and the human mother stay on the same page — as a life-giver and nurturer. In them, lies the source and the womb of birth. Beauty exists in both, so does the power of nestling a new-born creation,” he adds to explain the potent theme employed in his artwork.
His next project is a labour in progress and that will be the maiden output of his forthcoming Nature series. “But over here, along with nature’s boundless treasure trove, one more figure is set to trickle into my compositions and that is of a man, the purush. You see, the man-woman bonding and their tug-of-war is everlasting,” he reveals.
Adding, he amplifies the idea in lucid detail: “Incidentally, if we scrutinise carefully, we’d realise that nature has never budged an inch from its original position. For it has remained loyal to its own laws. But we humans have unfortunately moved away from our own course and turned mechanical in the due passage of time — ever since the industrial revolution had hit the modern civilisation. At present, we are more robotic than man-like. And to stop this breakaway phenomenon from drifting further, we ought to resort to the refuge of nature with an urgent immediacy.”
Coming from the East Midnapore district of West Bengal, Ghara is a diploma holder in drawing and painting from the Government College of Art and Craft. With several solo shows and group exhibitions to his credit, he has won accolades from
critics and connoisseurs all over. As an adept artist, he has received the much-
coveted Camelart Foundation Award in
2008.
The exhibition at Kolkata is open to public till March 26 between 2 pm and 7 pm.