Saturday, 16 April 2022

EXPLORING THE POPULAR TERRACOTTAS AND BRONZES OF SUBRATA BISWAS

The Sculptor Subrata Biswas simultaneously addresses two perennial problems that our modern sculpture has very often to confront. First is the question of identity, the second is that of socio-temporal commitment. Subrata through his skill and meditative tackling of forms brings out assimilation within the two. His expressions are apparently simple, sonorous, witty, humorous, yet very much critical in postulating the intrinsic turmoil of life. Through apparent ludicrousness he unfolds the tragic turmoil of reality. Primitivity and folk traditions have played a significant role in his approach towards own form. He thus connects himself with the sojourn of our modernity and absorbing the essence of its ideals transforms the same to suit his own sensibility and personality and thus creates significant forms positing a solution to the intricate problem of alienation and domination of Western modernistic modes.


 

 Jijibisha - A Ray of Hope                  Vitrified Terracotta                 28 x 23 x 10 in                  2019

Subrata Biswas (born 1972) is a sculptor, who came to his own creativity during the decade of 1990s. He completed his masters from Rabindra Bharati University in 1997 and is now attached to the same university as a faculty. For emancipation of his form he judiciously looked deeper into the popular artistic wisdom of our society. We know this search was an important trend of our modernity too. Abanindranath’s research on the cult of popular worship of women folk of village Bengal, which is commonly known as Broto and his significant publication of the booklet titled Banglar Broto opened a wide range of village cults. Gurusaday Datta’s explorations were also very important. The artistic activities of Sunayani Devi in the inner household of Jorasanko Tagore family and exploration of the popular by Jamini Roy and Nandalal Bose opened up the great expanse of folk and popular art. Yet the post-modern and rather the post-truth trends of the twenty-first century is entirely different from the previous explorations of the popular.

 Coronation           Slip Vitrified Terracotta                 39 x 18.5 x 12 in                  2020

Subrata has judiciously surveyed both the fields of the traditional popular and the devastating reality posed by the politics and the present epidemic situation caused by covid 19. He succinctly experimented with tradition and modernity and built up sculptural forms, which are apparently naïve and deeper in unmasking the various trends of existential truths dormant both within the collective unconscious and explosively conscious extrinsic features of our society. With benign sobriety he strikes the various heinous trends of our society with serious rebellious attitude. This is the essence of his present sets of sculptures.

He has worked both in terracotta and bronze. Both these mediums have their own trends of expressionist properties. But his conceptual rendering has energized one with the property of the other. Particularly his bronzes display a kind of sonority, which is very much inherent characteristic of terracotta.

For more details about the show, please get in touch with Komal Jaiswal at artshop@aakritiartgallery.com / +91 9830411116. The show can also be viewed at www.aakritiartgallery.com

TERRACOTTAS AND BRONZES OF SUBRATA BISWAS


16th April – 14th May, 2022

11am – 7 pm

Time Scape             Slip Vitrified Terracotta                 33 x 22 x 1 in                  2022

Aakriti Art Gallery




Orbit Enclave, 1st Floor12/3A, Hungerford Street, Kolkata – 700 017

Phone: +91 33 22893027/5041, ( Sunday Closed )

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Thanks for comment JK