Summer is a lean season for art, they say. However, when masters show their work, seasons become immaterial. One can't afford to miss the show titled Creativists - an exhibition of seven seasoned artists displaying their magnificent work at the India Habitat Centre here.
The exhibition features the works of Niren Sen Gupta, Kalicharan Gupta, Shobha Broota, Jagdish Chander, Jagadish Dey, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Apte (Sculptor), Jiten Hazarika and Radhe Shyam.
For curator Umesh Soin, the big names matter more than any commercial concerns. "I wanted to bring the great works of these artists to the art lovers of the capital. We don't have a theme for the show. I was not bothered about the commercial viability when I put it together," Soin told IANS.
It's a treat for connoisseurs when artists like Jiten Hazarika, who rarely conduct shows, exhibit their works. "Simplicity" and "We" are in his signature style in subdued hues and shades. The self-taught painter from Assam, known for his figurative abstracts, has created a niche with his oil paintings.
Niren Sen Gupta's transition from figuration into semi-abstraction is visible in "Refuge" and "Absolute". With an impressive colour palette, his geometric abstract works deal with the umpteen problems of humankind.
"I have done soul-searching through my work. I use bright colours to show the positive side of life," Sen Gupta told IANS.
The artist, former head of the Delhi College of Art, said he was concerned about the intellectual bankruptcy of urban life. "People in cities are turning highly materialistic and turning into consumerists. They forget to live a happy life in their rush to earn money. Through my work, I try to portray the other side of life," he said.
Artist Shobha Broota's works are inspired by a spiritual and meditative vision reverberating with rhythms in oscillating patterns. Her seemingly simple and minimal works invite the eye and blocks the perception to contemplate the form and its loosening unto the void. Hailed for its philosophical depth, her works command concentration on one's part to fully comprehend and appreciate them. Her creativity entails using various mediums including cloth, wool and iron mesh among others and the experimental quality of her works takes them beyond the plane of mere abstraction. She works on canvas, paper and board with equal elan to make balanced and tranquil compositions in variable textures and palette.
Kalicharan Gupta's "Celebration of life" has a vivid colour palette and he liberally uses black to make his point. This exploration is both visual as well as architectural (structural, that is). There is of course color, subtle, tonal and compositional variations, moving towards making an impressive statement.
The youngest in the group, Radhe Shyam has attempted charcoal and oil for his figurative paintings. The relationship between man and woman is the central theme of his work. "I have tried to portray the complex relationship between man and woman through my works," Radhey Shyam told IANS.
Inspired by the master strokes of Rembrandt and Dali, Sanjay Bhattacharya has attempted surrealistic imagery. "Band" on watercolour and paper shows the moods of a marriage band in action. Light and shade techniques are intelligently used. Bhattacharya, like most artists from West Bengal is known more for watercolours and oil works.
