In 1937, Piet Mondrian wrote, “Art is only a substitute while the beauty of life is still deficient. It will disappear in proportion, as life gains in equilibrium.” Rita Datta was fond of these lines by the Dutch painter, for they reminded her that art would, in fact, never disappear and that humanity would always need it. She was even heard quoting these lines in a brief video clip of her, played at her memorial service at the CIMA Art Gallery last week. The renowned art critic, whose columns in the weekly Art Review section of The Telegraph were eagerly awaited by readers for years on end, passed away on May 31 at the age of 74.
Her memorial service was organised by CIMA within the gallery space — the most fitting place for honouring her memory. Datta did, after all, share a long, warm association with CIMA. As the director of CIMA, Rakhi Sarkar, said, “Rita’s serious relationship with CIMA began in the 1990s, when we embarked on this arts centre. She was already writing occasionally on art and, with her academic background on history, it was easy for her to adopt art as a historical resource. Her writings were incisive, sensitive and brilliantly contextual. Once her partnership with CIMA started, we never looked back.” Over the next hour, Datta was spoken about, with fondness and pride, by her family, friends, colleagues and others who knew her at the intersections of the professional and the personal.
Rakhi Sarkar, director of CIMA, speaks at the memorial about Rita Datta and her long-standing relationship with the art gallery
‘Rita’s writings revealed her love for the visual arts’
The memorial service began with the chief administrator of CIMA, Pratiti Basu Sarkar, recalling the many hats that Datta wore during her lifetime — those of a writer and an art critic who contributed to several of CIMA’s catalogues, and a beloved history teacher at Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan (now The BSS School). “Rita Datta’s degrees were in modern history, but her writings revealed her love for the visual arts — anything visual attracted her,” said Pratiti Basu Sarkar. “Her knowledge of art was in-depth. What I enjoyed most was that she wasn’t keen to show off that depth of knowledge, with jargon and obscure, long sentences. That’s how she was, even as a person — knowledgeable, a watcher, a listener. She had a sense of humour and, most importantly, wasn’t ponderous or pretentious.” She ended by saying that she would miss seeing Datta at CIMA, “looking quietly and carefully at the artworks on the walls, and making notes”.
Pratiti Basu Sarkar opens the memorial service
Eminent artists such as Paresh Maity and Jogen Chowdhury, both of whom had shared a relationship of mutual admiration and respect with Datta, also sent in their messages for the memorial service, even though they were unable to be there in person. “Rita di’s demise is a great loss for us, and the entire art world,” Paresh Maity lamented. “A soft-spoken person and humble at heart, she was a great writer who put forward her thoughts in a meticulous way. Her articulate writing has immortalised the visual arts, and she will remain in our hearts as a dear friend and an insightful contributor to the world of art writing.”
“Even though Rita Datta held such expertise in her chosen field, she was a soft-spoken person,” recalled Jogen Chowdhury. “She was especially interested in the rich art produced by tribal and rural populations, and wrote extensively about it. The art world bears a heavy loss with her demise.”
Dr Niladri Chatterjee shares his memories of Rita Datta
‘For her, it was art first, it was art last’
Datta’s friends and colleagues in the world of art and academia — those who knew her for years, and those who knew her for only a little while — also shared their memories of her. “I did not know Rita di for very long,” said Dr Niladri Chatterjee, professor of English at the University of Kalyani. “The first time we met was when we were shooting at an exhibition at Gem cinema, but I was struck by her professionalism. She never lost focus; she knew that her job was to talk about art — nothing else mattered in those moments. For her, it was art first, and it was art last.” He read out Elizabeth Bishop’s iconic poem, One Art, in memory of Datta.
Artist and professor at Rabindra Bharati University, Dr Shreyasi Chatterjee, talks about her association with Rita Datta
“It is widely acknowledged that Kolkata has a dearth of serious art critics,” said Dr Sreyashi Chatterjee, eminent artist and professor, Rabindra Bharati University. “I knew Rita di for 15-20 years; she was a serious art critic who leaves behind a lasting legacy. She was erudition personified; her presence was quiet but deep. She was also approachable; artists felt they could frankly discuss their work with her. She will be remembered as a sensitive critic and reviewer who never held back praise when deserved, and always focused on the positive traits of an artist.” Chatterjee also commented on Datta’s descriptive, lucid writing, which “always brought forth the concept of a show vividly,” and mentioned how students and lovers of art always benefited from her “comprehensive views, correct methodology and fine language.”
Rita Datta was one of those unusual history teachers who actually made the subject interesting
‘Caring, protective, supportive and loving’
Also present at the memorial service were Datta’s friends and colleagues from her life as a history teacher at Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan. “Rita was my friend first,” said Ratnabali Ghosh, who studied at Loreto House at the same time as Datta, and later became her colleague at BSS. “She once suggested I call her didi, since she was four years my senior; I refused! She was my friend; caring, protective, supportive and loving.” Ghosh remembered how much Datta’s students at BSS loved her classes. “Rita Datta was one of those unusual history teachers who actually made the subject interesting. I know, because she even taught me everything I know about history! All of us present here today from BSS will agree that she taught all of us many things. We will always be indebted to her.”
Ratnabali Ghosh, Rita Datta’s fellow student at Loreto House and colleague at Ballygunge Shiksha Sadan, reminisces about her friend
Phul Acharjee, the principal of BSS during Datta’s time as teacher, also sent a message in Datta’s memory: “Serene, beautiful in thought, mind and deed, responsible towards her duties, academically brilliant — that was, nay, is, Mrs Rita Datta. I refuse to believe that she has left us, because she knows we need her always.”
Young Rita used to “give lectures to her father [former parliamentarian Tarun Kanti Ghosh] — who, incidentally, had a towering personality — on the wrongdoings of his own party!
‘A many-splendoured sun’
A memorial service for one so beloved could not have been complete without the fond memories of family members, whose recollections add loving and complex dimensions to an individual otherwise known to the world mainly for their professional achievements. While Datta’s niece, Tania Ghosh, read out a message from Datta’s paternal aunt, Srilekha Bose, the art critic’s cousin, Amrit Ghosh, also shared his thoughts about her.
“Rita was part of a many-splendoured sun; practising dance steps she learnt in nursery school, having skirmishes with her older brother, or gyrating with a hula hoop,” read Srilekha Bose’s heartfelt message. The attendees at the memorial section got a glimpse into the distinctive personality that Datta had even as a young girl, and the love she was surrounded by — her grandmother, for instance, used to save the sweetest slices of mango for her, and the young Rita used to “give lectures to her father [former parliamentarian Tarun Kanti Ghosh] — who, incidentally, had a towering personality — on the wrongdoings of his own party!”
Rita Datta’s niece, Tania Ghosh, reads out a message penned by Datta’s paternal aunt, Srilekha Bose
Srilekha Bose also mentioned Datta’s love of Elvis Presley’s music — a sentiment echoed by Amrit Ghosh. “Rita di and I were very close, even though we met only a few times in our lives; one of the things we bonded over was Elvis,” smiled Amrit, who recalled how vivacious and talented his cousin was as a teenager, and how she played a pivotal role in holding together the family newspaper, Amrita Bazar Patrika, during its days of crises in the 1980s. “She was a fire-fighter in those days,” he recalled. “She took to the paper’s office like a duck to water, and was there every single day. With her, there were no half-measures. She was never scared.”
Amrit Ghosh speaks about his cherished relationship with his cousin, Rita Datta
‘Well-mannered, simple and extremely humble, yet scintillatingly bright’
“I was speechless when I heard about Rita’s passing,” said Rakhi Sarkar, in conclusion of the memorial service. “One day, we were planning a great show at CIMA; the very next day, I learnt of her unforeseen health complications, and three months later, everything ended. Such are the vagaries of life.” But Rakhi Sarkar left everyone with happy memories of Rita di — a “bright, beautiful, distant relative of my husband’s family that I got to know in the 1970s”. They met first in Scotland, when Datta was a student accompanying her grandfather, Tushar Kanti Ghosh, to attend a major international press union. “I was so impressed with Rita on that very first encounter,” recalled the CIMA director. “She was well-mannered, simple and extremely humble, yet scintillatingly bright — one noticed her instantly.”
Rohini Roy Chowdhury and Pritam Chakrabarty perform at the memorial service for Rita Datta
Interspersed with the recollections of loved ones were two beautiful musical performances by the singer, Rohini Roy Chowdhury, who sang Rabindranath Tagore’s Pothe chole jete jete and Chirosokha, chhero na, accompanied by Pritam Chakrabarty on the esraj. The memorial service, of course, came to an end on a fitting note – with notes of Elvis’s Are You Lonesome Tonight wafting in the air.