Time and again when the people of India have had opinions to express, they have resorted to the use of art- in any form. This forms the basis of DAG’s annual City as a Museum in Kolkata this year. Turning 6, the Festival which turns the whole city into a museum of interactions, conversations, participation until November 22, kicked off with its inaugural exhibition at the Alipore Museum yesterday. While the programs listed on their official website need prior registration, the exhibition is open to all for the next 10 days.
Art has always been a medium of expression to define, reciprocate to, interact with, and depict societal conditions and it was the major weapon in the hands of the artists to protest, comment, depict, humour and predict. DAG’s curated exhibition Open City, a part of the annual Festival curates the works of artists from 1940s to the 1990s. Reiterating the background of Bengal back then, the city was grappled by post-independence, partition, Naxalite movements, Bangladesh Liberation War, the Bengal Famine, refugee crisis and more. During this period the artists took to their canvas to share the society, its woes and how the people reacted to reclaim their city. The subject of the exhibition is also particularly interesting as one can draw parallels between the past and the present with ongoing protests regarding demands for basic necessities, education, freedom of expression and more. A complete walkthrough of the exhibition also shows that how the demands still remain the same, although the medium of expression and the forms of protest might have changed.
Almost 40+ artworks have been arranged under five sections – Protest, Poetics, Contraventions, Metaphor and Satire. Protest starts with Chittaprosad’s works which establish the basis for the upheaval. Starting from food and shelter to school/ education and employment, all are depicted through his works. A more colorful canvas is by Partha Pratim Deb for this campus series. What seems are abstract symmetrical colour blocks of red,black and yellow with figurines in black, connects it directly to modern times when protests do start from campuses and extend to the society. In fact, the noticeable white spaces in the canvas directly points to the space for peaceful conversations in any dispute, only if it is used judiciously.
Poetics shines the light on how art has been an integral part of literature and poetry with many individuals playing dual roles. Displayed works of Ganesh Pyne and Reba Hore point to the Hungryalist movement and abstraction but focusing on transgressing social, literary and visual norms. In fact while Reba Hore uses a canvas, Ganesh Pyne’s graph papers used for sketching is an on-to-the-face objection to using western materials and art supplies.
Contraventions is perhaps the most relatable and visually appealing section of the exhibition which talks about how people used public spaces as points of meeting, discussion and thereby eventual change. When in Bengal, the concept of bikeler adda over cha – biskoot is the most common thing one can hear. And it is here that some of the protests, demands and amendments took birth. Artists like Bijan Chowdhury, Sunil Das, Hemanta Misra, and Nikhil Biswas championed this thought and brought to paper the scenes of meeting and gatherings from a paan shop to a tea stall, a visual which prevails even today.
Artists like Somnath Hore, Shyamal Dutta Ray, Bikash Bhattacharjee, broke the norm and started depicting the state of affairs through Metaphors instead of portraying realistic vision like their predecessors. Rabin Mondal’s Untitled series of four figurative artworks depicting a decaying man and a chair is a direct commentary on how one tries to hold on to power even though it is practically slipping away or hurting the individual. Bikash Bhattacharjee’s Political is another fabulous example of how an individual is blindfolded and give the microphone to speak only if they speak in favour of the power.
To conclude the exhibition, the last section named Satire, displays works by Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Prokash Karmakar, Quamrul Hassan and Chittoprosad. Now that there is no way out from the clutches of the degenerating power holders, the artists resort to satirist humour through caricatures and disproportionate depiction. From Dharmanarayan Dasgupta’s Kalighat pat which plays with colour and status to Prokash Karmakar’s Oh Calcutta, Victoria, Calcutta Maidan with an inverted artwork depicting the Victoria Memorial Hall, the segment is a comment on the plight of the local people when absolute power corrupts absolutely. Interestingly, the exhibition also comes to full circle with the last artwork again by Chittaprosad depicting that even after three decades from the entire timeline of the exhibition, the basic needs and demands of the people remain the same. It also raises a pertinent question – did the people progress at all or still stand where they started from?
Open City is on display at Alipore Museum till November 22, 2026 . Regular Alipore Museum timings and tickets applied.