His Ateliers Distilled

At the other end of the much-media­-ted line is Jogen Chowdhury, a master of Indian contemporary art. An editor terms him 바카라�the last of the greats바카라�; curator Uma Nair calls him a 바카라�modern master바카라�. Anupa Mehta, curator for Calcutta바카라�s Emami Art Gallery, says that he is an artist whose range and style creates an inimitable vocabulary. Chowdhury바카라�s three-month-long solo exh­ibition, a select retrospective titled Reverie And Reality, curated by Ranjit Hoskote, opened in Emami Art on September 20.

Jogenda is 80. His voice holds memories of his oeuvre, from which nearly 200 will be displayed. 바카라�Ranjit has selec­ted the paintings and I gave my notes to him,바카라� Chowdhury says.

Analysing his own work with a critical, objective eye in a way only a deeply self-­referential artist can, Chowdhury says his paintings can be organised in several different periods, as identified with the prevalence of particular motifs, such as the well-known 바카라�Ganesha바카라� period. This exhibition, says Hoskote, aims to revisit Chowdhury바카라�s extensive oeuvre바카라�바카라�an exp­erimental way of viewing바카라�.  

Seen chronologically, Chowdhury바카라�s sta­ges of evolution as an artist바카라�of lines, colour palette, texture and artistic vision바카라�are clearly delineated. The realism of figurative canvases, and the fresh, translucent, almost watery quality to the many colours he uses during his time at the Government College; in Paris, he is preoccupied with the human figure, drawing stark, pensive, thin-lined portraits of Europeans; after his return, working in Madras, there is an immediate shift바카라�the colours become earthier and more solid and opaque, the subjects change from realistic portraits to surrealistic landscapes of animals and flowers. It is possible to see today바카라�s Jogen Chowdhury beginning to take shape, with the bulbous forms of animals to the beginning of the cross-hatching technique that have now become his trademarks.

바카라�Art education at college was aca­demic; emphasis was on tech­nique with still life, nature studies, portraits and life studies,바카라� he recalls, 바카라�There was little scope for imagination in perspective and only somewhat in composition. I would see around me pai­ntings by the Tagores, both Rabin­dra­nath and Abanindranath, and I바카라�d see no resemblance between their work and mine.바카라�

This preference for the abstract over the photo-realistic, and concept and metaphor over physically perceived reality, propelled Chowdhury to expl­oring other ways of expression. As a student, his interest lay in how the 바카라�abs­tract바카라� could be instilled within the 바카라�real바카라�; he wanted to take the building blocks of art and meld them into a unique 바카라�representative form바카라�. Much of his artwork has been infused with Tagore바카라�s idea of beauty in the non-beautiful (rooper modhye oroop), a need to imbue a sense of eternity into his creations.

This idea led Chowdhury to develop signature techniques, like cross-hatching, that attracted him the more he employed it, indulging his love of creating characters in his paintings, adding a new layer of complexity in his human figures바카라�disproportionately distorted, with long torsos, loose limbs and elongated, flattened faces. The distortion of any shape inevitably res­ults in the creation of a new form, points out Chowdhury, much as a word can be elongated in a song to give it new significance: 바카라�The figure is redistributed totally, from the pose to the limbs, to the expression. God created both eleph­ant and giraffe. He created animals with different lines, in different shapes. Has anyone ever asked why? Then why ask us?바카라�

It wasn바카라�t just the desire to express the familiar in unfamiliar ways that shaped Chowdhury바카라�s artistic credo. Social realities influenced him deeply. 바카라�My family came from East Bengal, during Partition. We didn바카라�t know where we would stay.... There was a huge crisis of food, education and employment, and we, the refugees, felt it the hardest,바카라� the artist recalls. 바카라�The crisis spurred the Leftist movement in my youth, and in 1965, when I joined the Art College, both the political situation and our personal lives were in absolute turmoil.바카라�

In the Calcutta of the 바카라�60s바카라�seething in miasmic distress바카라�he started painting with black ink to create multiple layers of anguish. It was, perhaps, natural that a movement away from the city, to a different form of institutional tutelage in Paris, would have come as a welcome distraction. 바카라�I worked recklessly in Europe,바카라� he says, 바카라�And it wasn바카라�t enough.바카라�

At first at a loss for subjects, Cho­wdhury settled on absorbing the enormous historical and cul­tu­ral legacy of Europe. Viewing the European painters, he was struck by their sense of voc­ation바카라�바카라�whole-­timers바카라�. 바카라�We, in India, we had jobs!바카라� he exclaims with you­thful incredulity. 바카라�None of us could have afforded to just paint. We all painted in the evenings or during breaks!바카라�

He recalls asking himself if he should follow the Europeans, and whether his work should encompass European realities too. He decided that his art would reflect his unique understanding of his own reality. 바카라�Indian society is complex and rich and provides me with enough material,바카라� he remembers concluding. Chowdhury succeeded in that endeavour. 바카라�Jogenda is one of the few who can create with a very deep understanding of Western grammar but with elements and subjects firmly rooted in the Indian tradition,바카라� Nair points out.

On his return, Chowdhury moved to Madras with a job in the Handloom Board. The city, with its then-quiet environs, calmed him. 바카라�I had the time, in Madras, to go on long walks and observe nature, the flowers, the birds, the sky,바카라� he says. 바카라�I wrote a nearly 100-page manifesto in Chennai, detailing where I felt my work should be headed. That was the first major change.바카라�

He did a lot of work on paper, from paintings to drawings, drawing motifs and patterns from nature바카라�flowers, fish, fruits, insects바카라�in a sort of surrealist drea­mworld bearing little resemblance to his realist works in Europe. 바카라�In Madras, I began to work more with dream landscapes. I was there for four years. I liked that city very much,바카라� he says.

Chowdhury바카라�s remarkable ability to sift what he wanted from his surroundings sharpened his observation, leading him to his subjects.

It also made him into an astute political commentator armed with sharp wit who would create political satire such as Tiger in Moonlit Night바카라�a landscape in which a tiger attacks a prone man바카라�seen as a mordant reaction to the Emergency. During those years, he was at the Rashtrapati Bha­van as the curator of its art gallery. 바카라�While I was there, I observed the politicians at work바카라�their dress, their speech, their walk, their mannerisms,바카라� he recalls. 바카라�It was impossible not to caricature them.바카라�  

Though he chafed under the Emer­gency, he remembers his association with Indira Gandhi with fondness, describing her as 바카라�charismatic바카라�. 바카라�She understood, for example, the value of using the right colour of frame바카라�silver바카라�to accentuate the tones of a painting바카라�mainly blue바카라�in a room pain­ted grey.... She had a sensibility about art that is rare and, I think, was a result of her education at Shanti­niketan.바카라�

Chowdhury himself has been a long-time resident of Shantiniketan and teaching at Viswa Bha­rati바카라�s Kala Bhavan since 1987. 바카라�Art cannot be taught, really,바카라� he says. 바카라�I can teach a person how to draw a line or colour in, but I cannot teach them how to overcome themselves.바카라� Chowdhury points out that we need more institutions to uncover more talents: 바카라�If Ramkinkar Baij had remained in his village, he would not have been Ramkinkar Baij.바카라�

Chowdhury emphasises that while the narrative aspects of artists from Kala Bhavan have not influenced his work, their originality and their manner of 바카라�building up바카라� a work of art have left a deep impress, including, the work of his beloved Rabindranath. 바카라�The fierce physicality of Ramkinkar바카라�s sculptures impressed me immediately,바카라� he says. 바카라�There is a similarity with Picasso somewhere. Ben­ode (Behari Mukherjee) da바카라�s work taught me about fluidity바카라�how to draw a line, how to give a brushstroke. And the fun of Nandalal (Bose)바카라�s work is how he builds a form, from the solidity of a tree to the languidness of a creeper.바카라�

Even at his age, Chowdhury works inc­essantly. Nair, who had spent several days with Chowdhury in Shantiniketan, says he constantly doodles: 바카라�There was never a moment in which his hands were still. He was constantly drawing, and all he drew바카라�even a random line on a blank page, the way he loops them바카라�was so fluid, so beautiful.바카라� Chowdhury refers to these as haikus바카라�smaller, quicker works, like those ephemeral, yet immaculate and astute, Japanese fragments. Some are at the exhibition: a sort of inside glimpse into the artist바카라�s mind, as Hoskote puts it.

The 152-page catalogue created by Nair바카라�Abaho­man: Flowing Life바카라�is ter­med by her as 바카라�a piece of history바카라�: 바카라�The days I spent watching him work there cemented the idea in my mind that he is one of the greatest ambassadors of the Bengal School바카라�a con­temporary mode­rnist.바카라� Mehta agr­ees: 바카라�He is a spo­kesperson for the enti­rety of Bengal.바카라�

It바카라�s easy to forget, when we talk about Chow­dhury바카라�s immense artistic vision, that art to him primarily seems to be a form of play. The phrase that he uses most often when talking about his work is etatey amar moja legechhey (바카라�this is what I found to be fun바카라�). He uses it when mentioning his artistic influences; speaking about the conditions that inspired him to create or while discussing the evolution of his technique.

Perhaps it is this delight that he takes in expression that makes his paintings so vividly alive, so impressive in their non-beauty. In Yeats바카라�s introduction to the English translation of Gitanjali, he quotes Dwijen­dranath Maitra describing Tagore thus: 바카라�He is the first among our saints who has not refused to live, but has spoken out of Life itself....바카라� The same could, veritably, be said of Jogen Chowdhury.

(Reverie and Reality, curated by Ranjit Hoskote, opened at Emami Art, Calcutta, on September 20)