Shades of Bengal across time

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It’s a show where a Jogen Chowdhury rubs shoulders (read canvas) with an Atin Basak. Colours of Bengal: Yesterdays Meet Tomorrows, an exhibition that opened at the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi on June 1 and will continue till June 6, brings on board both established and emerging artists, giving a peek into the art and aesthetics of three generations of painters from Bengal who are strokes apart in their colours and composition, but united by the quality of their work.
Twenty-three-year-old Ayan Mukherjee, who has curated the show, says the idea was to underline “good quality art”. The artist who are part of the show — Jogen Chowdhury, Suhas Roy, Dhiraj Choudhury, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Subhra Mukherjee, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Apurba Choudhury, etc — may be divided by age and experience, but the show puts their works together to underscore the fact that good art goes beyond the barriers of age and experience. “The idea was to merge together artwork of both the older generations and the upcoming ones,” says Mukherjee.
The medium on display is as varied as the artists themselves — acrylic, watercolours, mixed media and etchings. So is the price range: from `10,000 to `3 lakh, and a few even more.
Mukherjee, who lives by the credo “art for all”, feels that art should be “explored” by every strata of the society. “Art shouldn’t remain only in the ambit of a handful of people who can afford it. It must be made affordable to the middle class who can go beyond seeing and appreciating good art and start collecting them,” Mukherjee says.
In his last show Colour Riot, which was held in Kolkata in March this year, he put together mini canvas works of mixed artists at “affordable prices”. Now, after Colours of Bengal in Delhi, he wants to hold such a show in Hyderabad and Bengaluru under the auspices of his organisation, Artistic, which he established around four years ago. “I want to explore the country, reaching out to all parts of India,” he says.
If a Tyeb Mehta and an M.F. Husain keep raking in the big bucks at Christie’s and elsewhere, Mukherjee says it doesn’t affect the Indian market a lot. “Mehta and Husain are in a different league. Here, one has to understand that the buyers have a budget. The art auctions and exhibitions in India have to keep that in mind.”
When it comes to sales at the show, Mukherjee has pinned his hopes on artists like Atin Basak, Bratin Khan and Subrata Gangopadhyay. “Atin has huge prospects. And Bratin’s Radha Krishna paintings (watercolours and etchings) are like meditation. They are simply out of this world. And as for Subrata, he is the greatest master in realism among contemporary artists,” he says.
However, be it an Atin or a Bratin, Mukherjee’s goal is clear — taking art to the masses.