Bikash Bhattacharya`s art to be showcased

More than 70 works of Bikash Bhattacharya will be shown for the first time.

New Delhi: More than 70 works by early master of Indian contemporary art Bikash Bhattacharya will be shown for the first time since his death in 2006 in a major retrospective exhibition at the Aakriti Art Gallery in Kolkata Aug 17-Sep 9 and at the Vadehra Gallery in the capital Oct 6-Nov 5.Bhattacharya was credited with bringing back life-like realism in modern art in the 1960s and 70s that helped the common man identify with art as a tool of mass communication. He painted the angst of those living on the fringe of the society.

Bhattacharya was known for his ability to show the psychological undercurrents of human beings. "The reason for organising the retrospective is to explore what he contributed to the life of the man on the streets. The works that include a wide range of mediums like oil, acrylic, pastel, mixed media and some graphic prints covers a period between 1950 and 2000," Vikram Bachhawat, director of the Aakriti Art Gallery, said on phone from Kolkata. Bhattacharya stopped painting in 2000 after a paralytic stroke. The exhibition, Bachhawat said, will also feature photographs of Bhattacharya, his associates and his friends. The art works will be exhibited in different sections, each representing a decade and the changes that crept into his style and themes down the years. "The art works have been sourced from my family collection, my gallery and from private collectors all over the country," Bachhawat said. Anirudh Daga of the Abani real estate group, who has donated seven works from his personal collection of Bhattacharya`s paintings, has been collecting the master`s works since three years before his death. "I have a modest collection of pastels and water colours of which two are landscapes," Daga said. Twenty of the 70 art works on display at the exhibition will be up for sale. Born in 1940, Bhattacharya`s first solo exhibition was held in Kolkata in 1965. He made a mark with his Doll Series in 1960s followed by a series of paintings on Goddess Durga in the same decade. He was inspired by Salvador Dali`s works. His paintings were also exhibited in Europe and US between 1969 ando 1985. In 2003, Bhattacharya was awarded the Lalit Kala Akademi fellowship for arts. "His paintings are currently estimated between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore," Bachhawat said. IANS