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Lot 70

 

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Since the 1960s, the main subjects of Bikash Bhattacharjee's work have been the common folk and events of his native city of Kolkata. Painting the city's joys and sorrows, Bhattacharjee uses his canvases to elevate beggars, prostitutes and street performers to an existence beyond their own circumscribed lives.

In this canvas, a seemingly destitute woman in a sari holding a child stands frozen against a hilly landscape, her eyes... Since the 1960s, the main subjects of Bikash Bhattacharjee's work have been the common folk and events of his native city of Kolkata. Painting the city's joys and sorrows, Bhattacharjee uses his canvases to elevate beggars, prostitutes and street performers to an existence beyond their own circumscribed lives.

In this canvas, a seemingly destitute woman in a sari holding a child stands frozen against a hilly landscape, her eyes downcast. Lit from one side by an eerie light, the woman, perhaps a rural migrant, invites both compassion and apprehension from the viewer.

The artist's intention in these works is to raise his subjects out of their own realities into ones they can only achieve in their dreams. In doing so, Bhattacharjee voices his own disillusionment with the state of society, making poignant statements about the poverty, greed, and urban strife that have caused it. As he explains, "I see myself as a sort of painter journalist, using paint and canvas as a photo-journalist might use his camera. What I have to say is right there on the canvas" (Indian Painting Today, Jehangir Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1981, p. 17).

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