The classic and the contemporary

Ashoke Mullick is a post-modernist artist who brings together the real and the surreal.

Ashoke Mullick had an early initiation into the world of art. All of five, he sat with his commercial painter father, who was giving a finishing touch to a job for an advertising agency, and painted his drawing with his father's poster colours.

The memory stayed with him and grew to become his passion. So much that his maths notebook in school had more drawings than numbers on it! An entry into the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata and a first-class degree in Fine Arts was only a natural progression.

And there has been no looking back since. He won himself a cultural scholarship by the department of culture under eminent artist Bikash Bhattacharjee in 1981 and later participated in several group shows.

But it was only after M F Husain left one of his works (that he'd picked up for himself) at a Mumbai gallery for their perusal that his commercial journey really began. "It was not as if things changed overnight," recalls Mullick. "The gallery took its time and then one fine day I got a call in Kolkata saying they were interested in seeing my work. That was it," he says.

In terms of style, Mullick is essentially a post-modernist artist who likes to play with nostalgia and retro genre. He cleverly juxtaposes the classic with the contemporary. The images on his canvas are a mix of the real and the surreal.

For instance, a lady with a parrot (or the one with a mobile and the one with a hand-held fan); prostitutes and an old man huddled together; a poor family looking sad at the birth of their son with the white elephant symbolic of Buddha's arrival in the back ground, are all images drawn out of real life. Some nostalgic, others close observations, but so very Kolkata. Some depicting good life, the others poverty.

In fact, the colours on his canvas too are reminiscent of the Pata style of art "" very flat, spread-over, colourful (his preference for colours like red, yellow and blue is a dead giveaway) and depicting the social life of Bengal.

But the figures somewhat remind you of the Hadauti or the Bundi-Kota style of miniature art with sharp features (arched brows, lotus petal-shaped eyes and a strong nose) and strong colours.

Mullick prefers oil on canvas. "But after oils, acrylics has been a natural progression. It's quick drying, takes well to moist weather and the best part being you can get the effect at the same time."

Incidentally, it is for the very first time that Mullick is exhibiting solo in Delhi in the last 10 years. His first solo in Delhi was hosted by Art Today. His exhibition, titled "Conversations in Time", opens today at Gallerie Nvya, New Delhi and will be on till February 20.