It reads like a pastoral poem. Or as a painted canvas that depicts a village scene over the earthen patas. Is he a dedicated patua — one of those scroll painters from Bengal’s hinterlands? — goes the whispering murmur among the large gathering present at a gallery gala. Well, no one is to be blamed. For his soul-touching
delineation of a sylvan rustic life strengthens that belief in a smitten onlooker. And makes his artistic creed stand out from the contemporary pedigree of modern deconstructive as well as installation artists. Meet the middle-aged artist Tapan Kar, whose middle name is simplicity. And that is his greatest forte too, setting him a class apart from the rest!
One may, however, find an enamouring connection in the statement — Women are his Muse. But there is more than what just meets the eye. Flashes of beautiful faces and figurines may only conform to a colourful splash of bare brushstrokes. It is, in fact, Kar’s deft use of hues and drawings that make sure they say a thousand words through his portraits. A true picture after all always tells a tale, even if it is a well-conceptualised painting. Explains the low-key artist, “Rural life is my favourite theme. Little details about the agrarian society — the ingenuous village folk, their daily lifestyle, how they go about their work from dawn to dusk, and especially the bowers of women and their domestic chores — all captivate my mind and imagination tremendously.” Incidentally, renowned USA-based artist Janis Kirstien has shown her keen interest and abounding curiosity in Kar’s style of portraying rural life and women.
At the very outset of his career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kar was granted with a rare privilege to extensively scour the Bengal villages far and wide in the capacity of a field investigator — coordinating a project as a surveyor of Bengali language in India — from the esteemed banner of Calcutta University. He had then deeply observed and studied places and people from this proximity. In the process, with some additional help from ace folk artist Tarapada Santra, Kar had immersed himself in folk culture and art and further improvised on his craft. It also significantly left an indelible influence on his creative contents. “I took frequent trips to the bucolic boondocks of West Bengal, traversing across one village after another, practically covering all the districts and block areas of the state continually for three years between 1978 and 1981. Throughout these business-oriented visits, I intermittently served my own purpose. I personally started working on my sketchings of rural landscapes with women as their centrepiece,” he recollects. Thereafter, he landed himself a school job in Purulia, where he joined as a drawing master in March, 1981. There, he could actually narrow down the distance between his aesthetic hankerings and the ideal haven to find its proper expression. “After five days of teaching at school, I would get enough free time and moments to spare on the weekends to pursue my own creative interest,” he reveals.
“You see, mere message-driven documentation of
the countryside may not appeal to the masses. One has to find a spirited essence within it. Otherwise, it seems like a hollow harmony. The fact of the matter is that without some heart-tugging strains, even a melodious tune can fall flat on its face,” he further deduces his point.
Of late, Kar’s eye-grabbing oeuvre of the “idyllic life and village belle” series was exhibited at Kolkata’s reputed Birla Academy of Art and Culture with the title The Heraldic Journey. Talks are now underway with the Emami Chisel Art Gallery for a near future showcase. Already hoarding a bulk of above 200 paintings in his kitty, Kar had mounted up an eclectic chunk of 115 framed pieces at the recently-held exhibition. Reasonably priced between `5,000 and `35,000, the display was in fact, quite an impressive draw, and had fetched in an overwhelming response from astute aficionados. Varying in shapes and sizes, the dimensions differed between 12X16 inches to 78X60 inches — as large as 5X6.5 feet.
Adept in diverse media — be it oil, acrylic, tempera or water colours — Kar is now trying his efficient hand at a unique experimental exploration. “I’ve mixed earthy tints with pillow cotton and then painted the same over a plywood board. I had originally implemented this method over two decades ago in 1987, and could unleash only four-five paintings out of it. “At present I want to revive that medium and rehash it for my next exhibition. To me, tempera on paper is the best medium to put forth my ideas and thoughts. However, I also like to apply oil on canvas at the same time to articulate my feelings and ably render a special effect. Besides paintings, clay-modelling is my second most fascinating vocation,” he elucidates.
An alumnus of the Govt. Art College, Kar remembers being trained under the tutelage of eminent veteran painter Ganesh Haloi. “He is one of the leading masters on Bengal’s artscape. I feel blessed and privileged to be a student under his guidance,” he admits. “I always cherish the great moment when he encouraged me to experiment with the medium of egg tempera. In this form, only the insides of the egg yolk are mainly put to use,” he enlightens. Like a true born artist, his fetish for the finer details continues unabated and that’s what attests the hallmark of an authentic artist.