Achin Patua’s 41st Annual Exhibition

Atanu Basu

It was in the year 1982, a group of young artists, assembled near Gurudwar Park, Chetla and hanged a couple of paintings in the railings of the park. The group was later known as "AchinPatua". Muktangon, an open air theatre used to provide them open space for their art exhibition. Muktangan apart, there were other open spaces in south Kolkata, where they regularly displayed their art work. This year, their 41st Annual Exhibition, was held in Birla Academy. The idea of such an unorthodox endeavour was mooted in the eighties of the last century. It received enthusiastic patronage of noted artists like ParitoshSen, Sunil Das, Shyamal Dutta Roy and others. From 1985 onwards, they shifted their venue from open air to equipped art gallery. When they switched to galley for their exhibition, in those early days, artists like ParitoshSen, Sunil Das and Shyamal Dutta Roy used to send their paintings to their exhibitions. In the course of time, SanuLahiri, Wasim Kapoor, Bijan Chowdhury, Asit Paul also started joining AchinPatua’s exhibitions. This group had organic link with many persons engaged in cultural movements and wanted to create art awareness among the common people. This latest exhibition by various artists displayed seriousness of their efforts, they are imaginative, full of contemplation and touched the audience by provoking them to introspection and thought.

Ashish Gupta's exhibits were Pen and Ink and acrylic on canvas. In both the media, the intense textural quality with fine expression is simply marvelous. His three series had two different aspects in store for the viewers. While his series "Faces" is thought provoking, his other two "The Battle" and "Chorus" are full of dramatic twists and turns.

Sabyasachi Sengupta's vertical sculpture displayed a sort of tribal mythical design. One may possibly be able to locate strong relic of Mexican tribal element in those works. He is equally at ease with wood , metal and other materials. His works, "Durga" and "Dharma-chakra" were very much attractive. His work, "Mother and Child" in aluminium is nice.

Swapan Kumar Ghosh presented a series on acrylic, named "Those Donkeys". They are presented in a geometric, architectural and dimensional fashion. The proportion and measurements deserve a ton of praise.

Indrajit Narayan's work also centered on geometric presentation. His "God Embraced" and "The Conversation" are good works in Relief painting in mix media. He presented a part of a face from different perspectives and used colour and texture in a very delicate manner; he composed them in a modernistic way—not too abstract.

Sumarthya Dutta created a mystic-romantic environment in blackish blue colour in acrylic which pervades the viewers’ imagination with an amazing effect. His two major paintings were “valley I” and “Valley II”. His composition, “All on a Sudden”, done in colour is distinguished for its treatment, style and mood.

Chilika Kanika’s presentation on paper in water colour wash, particularly “Fear”, is attractive for its treatment, transparency and composition.

Supriyo Sahoo excelled in black and white and colour in mixed media while Rupali Roy’s theme was Face. One would be up against a twist when one views Soma Maji’s painting, because of quality and composition. Her pieces, “Nature” and “Rhythm of Nature” are both done in mixed media and deserve a special mention.
The exhibits displayed by “Achin Patua” is a mixed bag of big and small success, some are moderate ones but none are outright failure.

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Vol 56, No. 40, Mar 31 - Apr 6, 2024