BenodeBehari Mukherjee
KCC Exhibits the Quaint Landscapes of Birbhum through Binodebehari’s Handscrolls
Debapriya Bhattacharya (Edugraph Intern)
Posted on 14 Jun 2023
15:26 PM
1/14
The entrance to the exhibition illustrates the life of BenodeBehari Mukherjee, tracing his journey as a socially aloof child with congenitally impaired vision to his becoming one of the leading exponents of Modern Bengal Art. Edugraph
ADVERTISEMENT
2/14
How BenodeBehari placed himself in his paintings gives audiences insight into the mind of this solitary master, who, even after gradually opening himself up to human company, preferred to be positioned in the backdrop, careful never to hog much space.
3/14
Studying the landscapes painted by BenodeBehari shows the influence East Asian (Chinese and Japanese) Art had on his early works.
4/14
But BenodeBehari’s work was not limited to borrowed styles. One of the pioneers of the Indian Modernist Movement, the enlarged installations of segments of his scrolls allow the audience to appreciate the finer details of his craft.
5/14
Scenes in Shantiniketan is BenodeBehari’s first experiment with the handscroll format, painted in around 1924.
6/14
13 m long, Scenes in Shantiniketan is also BenodeBehari’s longest scroll and the only one where the scene moves from right to left.
7/14
Scenes in Shantiniketan begins with a segment representing the campus of Shantiniketan, followed by a sal forest, villages and paddy fields and finally the Khoai. The scrolls can be read as a journey in stages from a space modelled by humans to the vast expanse of barren nature.
8/14
The Khoai scroll is one of BenodeBehari’s seminal works exploring the barren summer landscape of Shantiniketan.
9/14
Stylistically, the Khoai scroll was more personal, drawing far less upon Far Eastern Art styles than his previous works.
10/14
The Village Scenes scroll paints a more colourful and soothing picture of Shantiniketan, of a land that has been made luscious and vibrant by the monsoon rain.
11/14
The Scene in Jungle, painted in 1940 on an 83 cm banana pith scroll, was among the final works of BenodeBehari as a landscape artist.
12/14
Dr Debasis Bhattacharya (right), in conversation with Debdutta Gupta, reminisced the time spent with his grandfather BenodeBehari Mukherjee, at an evening session on 10 June 2023. This was the first of the three discussions held that evening by Kolkata Centre for Creativity in collaboration with Gallery Rasa, with The Telegraph Online Edugraph as the digital media partner of the event.
13/14
The conversation was followed by Prof R Siva Kumar’s talk on ‘Landscape and the Artist’s Self: BenodeBehari’s Engagement with the Shantiniketan Countryside.’
14/14
The final session of the evening treated the audience to a conversation between Uma Nair (right) and Prof R Siva Kumar on the latter’s distinguished curatorial practice.
Last updated on 14 Jun 2023
15:29 PM
ADVERTISEMENT
Similar stories
ADVERTISEMENT
