Master abstract artist Silajit Ghosh returns to Kolkata with his first solo in two decades

Blacks, Whites, Golds, Yellows, and Reds dominated the eyes everywhere we looked as we took a tour of ‘The Quest Within’ art exhibition at The Harrington Street Art Centre. The first solo of artist Silajit Ghosh in over two decades is presented by Exhibition Director Reena Dewan, Founder, The Bridging Culture and Art Foundation; and curated by Nanak Ganguly. A master in the abstract form of art, the artworks are divided into various series namely ‘Alchemy’ or ‘Memoir’. Delving into themes like the fleeting nature of memory to embracing limitations, what makes the exhibition stand-out is its ability to make a connection with the visitors. Each stroke, each colour, each shape caught the attention of the audience and made them perceive it in their own way.

The art exhibition which will continue till November 17, 2024 also had a book launch in the presence of notable personalities like Didier Talpain, French Consul General in Kolkata; IAS Atri Bhattacharya; Jogen Chowdhury, veteran artist; Chhatrapati Dutta, painter and principal, Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and Nazeeb Arif, executive Vice president of ITC Limited; and Pinaki De, award winning book cover designer. The inauguration saw the presence of the who’s who of Kolkata’s art milieu in attendance and received appreciation for the diverse nature of its curation.

Delving Deep

Speaking to the artist himself we tried to unearth was abstract-ism signifies. In his words, “I work with abstract expressionism which started around the 1850s-60s and various artists have worked in this field at various points in time. The most prominent feature of this form of art is the fact that I want to express something but I do not express it with its corresponding objects in outer reality. I will not draw a sea, table or chair, the way we associate them but instead, as their inner elements. Science has found that 13.75 billion years ago, Earth was like a speck from where everything has originated and evolved. So technically, we all have the same origins and this truth is always subconsciously present in our mind.”

We tried to decode the use of stand-out colours through his works and he states, “More than the colours what strikes are the vibrancy and rawness of the colours. Many times colours merge together and form a different shade but again in many of the artworks there are pure colours. These pure colours – pure red or pure yellow- work better when perceived by our subconscious. That is why I have worked with these colours so that the emotions can be understood faster.”

Before retiring to attend to the guests, he tried to summarise the most pressing question we had- Why a solo after 21-years? – to which he responds, “I am on a constant journey to create something better and novel than my previous artworks. This took me two decades and the search continues.”

Art Picks!

Not often do we come across individuals from art world who have a knack of locating unique artists and upholding their works to the audience. One such curator is Reena Dewan. As the exhibition director her excitement in seeing the displays receive praise knew no bounds.

She recalls, “New challenges excite me. When I got to know about Silajit’s work, I met him, saw his works and felt that there was so much happening through his creations. That got me thinking into how to divide his works and curate the display. We noticed that there are phases of works which could be assembled together. I haven’t seen an artist be able to come up with such a variety and yet people would understand that these works are by him. I felt his works should be brought forward. Moreover, being abstract, it helped different people to connect differently with the artworks which I think is the strength of this exhibition.”

Into the mind of the designer

An interesting part of the exhibition was the book launch which not only talks about the journey of Ghosh as an artist but also his advent into art which did not follow a conventional path. For every art collector and connoisseur, the book would be the perfect collectible to browse through and appreciate the power of abstract art.

Pinaki De, who designed the book, tells us, “The challenge was to design pure abstracts in a book form. Also, the dimensions were different because some of the paintings were huge and some of them were smaller. So, how to fit in different dimensions without letting people understand that was the challenge. What I did was varied the sizes of the prints. Ultimately it’s about the paintings and not about the dimension or size; so I have done it in a free-style mode so that the readers have an inclination of what his techniques are.”

When asked what he finds best about the artist’s works, he states, “Personally, I find his techniques to be very interesting. It’s very unusual since he has not been taught in a conventional way. Sometimes this becomes the strength of the painter because it brings out the spontaneity in them. ‘Frenetic Dance’ and ‘Alchemy’ series are something I really like.

A warm reception

We caught up with Didier Talpain, Consul General of France in Kolkata after his quick tour of the exhibition. He adds, “This is a very rich exhibition with probably 100 or more works are on display. I am not a fan of black colour so I am more into the artworks which have colours. There’s a small series which is a reworking of some magazine pages which is very colourful and then there black impressions on it. That is the series which I like the most.

The Quest Within is on till November 17, 2024 at the Harrington Street Art Centre.