On December 22, the Centre of International Modern Art (CIMA) hosted ‘Part 1: Fantasy to Subliminal’ of ‘12 Masters’ – a gallery exhibition. Part 1 focused on the works of the artists Ganesh Pyne, Arpita Singh, Sushen Ghosh and Shreyasi Chatterjee. The first part focuses on the movement from the fantasy to the subliminal and will be held till January 20. ‘Part 2: Neorealism to Social Realism’ will be held from January 27 to March 1 and will feature artists such as Meera Mukherjee, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Jaya Ganguly and Jogen Chowdhury. The third part of the exhibition will be held from March 15 to April 13 and will feature works of Lalu Prasad Shaw, Sanat Kar, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury, and Somnath Hore
Photos by Amit Datta
The inauguration of the exhibition saw Rakhi Sarkar, director and curator of CIMA, Pratiti Basu Sarkar, chief administrator of CIMA, and all the artists present sprinkling rose petals on water. ‘CIMA believes that the artists are the representatives of the art world. They are the celebrities as far as CIMA is concerned. Therefore, we will always have our opening with all of you and with all the distinguished members of the art faculty,’ said Rakhi Sarkar
‘Some of the works are excellent and it is always refreshing to see the works of masters such as Ganesh Pyne and the others. I especially like Arpita Singh’s paintings. I have been coming here (CIMA) for several years and am an art collector. I have got some of the best works from here and I missed some great works like ‘Sufi Saint’ by Manjit Bawa. But I keep coming back,’ said Pradeep Arora, managing director of Cotton Casuals India Pvt. Ltd
‘I think it is a very important exhibition. What I am really enjoying about this exhibition is that the 12 masters that Rakhi (Sarkar) has chosen represent a broad spectrum of material, visual language, gender and themes. They are not all political; they are socio-political, personal, and autobiographical. It is really lovely to see the range and the nuanced work of this particular period in one space,’ said art historian Alka Pande
“I like portraying landscapes with minute details. I like the daily lives of people from villages and I like how they are one with their natural setting. I visit different places and there I pick up on the peculiarities. For me, the natural world is refreshing because I live in the city. But then, there are certain flashes of industrialisation in the rural landscape. This is India for me. I use mixed media because that is my language,’ explained Shreyasi Chatterjee
‘I feel that this exhibition was long overdue, because these are some of the greatest artists that we have. We get to see one or two of their pieces and never in this quantity. And for people like Ganesh Pyne, we also get to see how their work has evolved over the years. This is an experience that only a concentrated exhibition focused on a few artists can offer,’ said author and academic Niladri R. Chatterjee.
Historian and politician Sugata Bose was spotted at the exhibition. 'It is a wonderful exhibition of four true masters of their art. I am especially impressed by Ganesh Pyne’s wonderful work on the Mahabharata theme. He captures the spirit of the epic. I have been coming here for the last 30 years, often with my mother, who in her time was an art critic. I really must congratulate Rakhi di because it is not easy to run an institution such as this and she has truly enriched the cultural life of Calcutta for three decades,’ he said
