Debovasha has consistently tried to modernize traditional sara painting, which has long been an inseparable part of folk rituals. This year, the Sara Painting Exhibition held in December saw 16 artists — young and old — reimagine the sara and present artworks both contemporary and traditional.
Atin Basak and Krishnendu Chaki (picture) opt for the latter with striking portrayals of Durga, while Ganesh Haloi and Hiran Mitra stand out for their minimalist, modernist take on the sara. Chhatrapati Dutta turns the saras into totemic shields telling battle stories; Pradip Rakshit and Sekhar Roy imagine them as windows into faraway, idyllic worlds. Alay Ghosal, Sushobhan Adhikary, Shuvaprasanna and Tanmoy Banerjee capture faces of humans and animals frozen in time while Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Sanat Kar, K.G. Subramanyan and Jogen Chowdhury add their signature styles to the saras.