The Hindu : New Delhi News : Depicting common humanity

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Friday, Dec 28, 2007
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Depicting common humanity

Staff Reporter

MASTER STROKES: One of Uttam Kumar Basak’s work.

New Delhi: An exhibition of paintings, drawings and etchings by Swapan Karmakar and Uttam Kumar Basak is now on view at Lalit Kala Akademi in the Capital.

Born in West Bengal, Karmakar has to his credit several exhibitions in India and abroad, while Basak is the recipient of the Government’s national cultural scholarship and a junior fellowship from the Central Department of Culture. He has also held a number of solo shows at Art Alive Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam and Vision Art Gallery. Eminent writer, poet and senior fellow of Lalit Kala Akademi, Keshav Malik, says: “Through their work the artists have explored aspects and nuances of the human creature in his socio-psychic being. There are no gods or goddesses here, only the common humanity and its symbols of power. It is only indirectly that these artists describe the dignity of being human. They do not say that man is at the centre of the universe or even that he is the measure of all things. Instead, their work propounds the belief that man is not God and that God itself is an idea advocated by man himself.”

Comparing the two artists, Malik says: “Basak’s work is all about the hard, practical outlines of his designs while Karmakar’s projections give in to his tendency towards free play resulting in some fetching images result. Each artist’s work focuses not so much on the face represented but in the way the sensibility is expressed through tone and line. Karmakar’s charcoal work and Basak’s “The Glorious King” capture several meanings, both visual as well as cultural.” The exhibition is open up to this Saturday.

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