The art world lost a consummate artist on June 1st in Kolkata. Dhiraj Choudhury was one artist who had more than 80 odd solo shows in his career. From landscapes to cityscapes, portraiture to still lifes, he reconfigured the conventions of painting, paving the way for a distinctly figurative style that was brisk and spontaneous, filled with the passion for colours and contours.
Shunning realism and illusionism, he created a unique pictorial language, creating works that remain today as vivid as when they were first painted over more than 50 years of painting. Always in demand at art auctions, his canvasses were always full bodied, teeming with characters and flora and fauna as if each had their own space in the choreography of life. Using pure, as well as mixed colours, he painted with a never-before-seen spontaneity and rapidity, leaving his brush strokes visible as he sought to capture the effects of light, atmosphere and movement in his canvasses. Often painting within the landscape of his thought, wanting to carve a panorama of impressions, he captured a direct and instinctive response to his subjects, depicting street scenes and narratives like Durga Puja and many other momentous memories leaving behind the studied techniques and often meticulous moorings of his creation.
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Dhirajda, as he was called, taught for a few years at the College of Art in Delhi. He was popular amongst the gallery fraternity in Delhi but his fame spread far and wide. Among his patrons was Lam Peck Heng, the Singapore High Commissioner who was also an art collector. He often recalled the experience . “I received a call from the Singapore High Commission, H.E. Mr Lam Peck Heng wanted to visit my studio. He came, and he bought my paintings and subsequently we became friends. In 1994, Mr. Lam organised an exhibition of paintings at Orchard Road, “Art Line Gallery”. During my stay in Singapore... I did several sketches, came back home and wrote an article, ‘Singapore through a painter’s eyes’ and published a portfolio of sketches, limited edition and signed, numbered. I also did some sketches of the ‘Singapore Art Museum’ when it was under construction and gifted my drawings to the Museum.”
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Dhirajda was equally at ease with socio-political situations as well as weaving in religious themes and figures. Revolutionaries like Khudiram Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Rasbihari Bose and Subhas Chandra Bose were inspirations for him. His canvasses and drawings focussed on the play of characters and the fleeting, ephemeral movement of their conversations and stories within the frame.
If he created a Ganesha or a Krishna around the composition of the main subject, he would fill the background with swift, loose brush strokes that conveyed a sense of the speed with which he rendered the scene. His frames were always rippling with lithe lines and contours. He was able to achieve this perspective by creating his own language of pictorial representation. His two most evocative works were Durga and Ma Sharada Devi. The powerful ripples and reflections captured by him in a series of short/long brush strokes stood independently from one another in his quest to record the idea of movement and memory all contained in a frame of narratives.
One of his closest friends in Delhi was artist Sanjay Bhattacharyya who says he had the ability to eloquently capture impressions of an evening or an incident with precision and accuracy.
“He was a prolific artist, whose understanding of techniques and the grammar was very deep,” reminisces Bhattacharyya. “He created electrifying lines – they were very controlled – he could draw multiple figures on top of one basic image and create a completely different perspective. The first time I met him was in 1983 when he was living in Karol Bagh. I also lived in a small one room apartment near his flat. I saw his drawings – they were very powerful – no wash at all but subtle colours....” “In his works, he could tell a story completely and he could create an interplay between light and shadow, reality and reflection to perfectly illustrate compositional structuring – that is why he had a distinct maturity in his style. His delicate brush strokes could capture the gentle fall of light upon the subject’s face and he was able to imbue his paintings with a luminescence that distinguished him from many others.”
Godfather for students
As a Professor at College of Art, says Bhattacharya, Dhirajda was greatly loved and respected. “Professors in those days were among those who taught their students to create a new language, looked at art with passion. Not like today’s world! After his passing away, I spoke to a few of his students. He was like a godfather to them. Once he protested about the practice of Sati. It was socio political but he did it in a very individualistic and very subtle way.”