CIMA Award 2019 recipient Prashant Shashikant Patil’s first solo exhibition was inaugurated at the CIMA Gallery on Friday in the presence of chief guest Gianluca Rubagotti, Italian consul-general in Calcutta, Rakhi Sarkar, director of CIMA Gallery, Pratiti Basu Sarkar, chief administrator of CIMA Gallery and the artist community.
Rubagotti scatters rose petals to inaugurate the exhibition.
Patil, who hails from Koregaon in Maharashtra, was selected for the award from among 158 applicants, through a strict evaluation process. “In the 28-year journey of CIMA, the Awards is personally my favourite. Though we have worked with all the top artists of India, CIMA Awards has given us a kind of fulfilment that we’ve never had before. We would not have discovered young people like Prashant without the Awards,” said Rakhi Sarkar.
The evaluation process has a two-layer system of 20-25 distinguished jury members, with the artists remaining anonymous. The jury doesn’t know them, their gender, where they come from. All they see is the artwork and the details next to the artwork. “It is, therefore, a very objective system where provincialism, any kind of institutional bias, gender bias doesn’t come into play,” said Sarkar.
Prashant’s family members do the honours.
Patil’s work is best described as sculptural drawing installation where he uses the medium of hot glue gun. “He always says his art is about connecting and I think Prashant has very successfully connected the cultural sensibilities of Maharashtra with that of Bengal,” said Sarkar.
For Rubagotti, Patil’s work evoked connections with Italy. “When I was going up and down the gallery looking at your pieces I tried to play a little game. I know your roots are very much here, in India, in Maharashtra and in Bengal but I was trying to imagine you in Italy. The first feature that strikes me is the interplay between light and shadow. So I was imagining you, staying in the beautiful Church of St Louis in Rome, spending hours in contemplation of the masterpieces by Caravaggio. But I am not trying to draw any comparison,” the Italian consul-general told Patil.
Prashant with CIMA Gallery director Rakhi Sarkar.
“The other feature of your work is the research for new material. Once again my mind went back to 1960s Italy when we had the avant garde movement where the people tried to reject the previous forms of art and material and started using new material like rock, sand, rope. This is not to say that you are the new exponent of the avant garde movement of 60 years ago but this is a little game that I like to play, and I think it would be useful also for you to have more and more inspiration and take some time and travel to my country,” Rubagotti added to applause.
Patil’s family came down from Maharashtra for the opening as did his friends from Santiniketan. “I feel like he is getting some return for the hard work he has put into his art. From childhood he was most interested in art and was always participating in all kinds of artwork. It feels really good to see his work here today,” said his father Shashikant Patil.
For the artist, this exhibition has finally given him the satisfaction that not even working on it for a year-and-a-half had. “Till I was able to see my work displayed, I couldn’t be satisfied. When I was hanging my work the decision between whether shadow was my main preference or the drawing caused a lot of difficulties. It was a difficult decision to make,” said Patil, adding that the shadow of our traditions that we are leaving behind is one of the biggest parts of his work.
“Shadow is very romantic and that has been displayed so wonderfully. The effect of the shadow is very attractive. Also at some point it reminds me of reticulate venation we studied in biology, it is so delicate… so fragile, like gossamer. One can enjoy his work for hours,” said artist Shreyasi Chatterjee.
Artist Shreyasi Chatterjee at the exhibition.
The exhibition is on at CIMA Gallery till March 13.
