Bikash Bhattacharjee
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| Bikash Bhattacharjee | |
 Bikash Bhattacharjee |
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| Born | 1940 Kolkata |
| Died | 18th December 2006 Kolkata |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Field | Painting |
| Training | Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship |
| Movement | Realism |
| Works | Fantasy Show Doll Series Cupboard The Visitor The Trap |
Bikash Bhatacharjee (1940-December 18, 2006) was an Indian painter from Kolkata in West Bengal. Through his paintings, he depicts the life of the average middle-class Bengali - their aspirations, superstitions, hypocrisy and corruption, and even the violence that is endemic to Kolkata. He worked on all mediums - oil, acrylic, water-colour, conte and collage. His ability to penetrate and portray the inner psychological undercurrents makes him one of India's most powerful contemporary artist.
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[edit] Early life and background
Bikash Bhattacharjee was born in Kolkata. At a very early age he lost his father. The consequent struggle for survival left him with a deep sense of insecurity as well as an empathy for the under-privileged, who often feature in his works.
In 1963, he graduated from Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship.
Bikash lived in Kolkata all his life.
[edit] Career
Bikash Bhttacharjee began teaching at Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship from 1968 to 1972. Later from 1973, Bhattacharjee began teaching at the Government College of Art & Craft and taught there till 1982. In 1964, he became a member of the Society of Contemporary Artists.
[edit] Painting career
His first solo exhibition was made at Kolkata on 1965. His paintings were exhibited outside India also; 1969 at Paris, between 1970-72 at Yugoslavia, Checkoslovia, Romania and Hungary, at London on 1982 and New York.on 1985.
He achieved commercial success very early in life with his Doll Series in the 60's, which was later followed by the Durga Series. In the 1980s, Bikash painted illustrations for a sequel novel on the life of another great artist of the past- Ramkinker Baij . The novel written by Bengali novelist Samaresh Basu could not be completed as Basu died in between, but Bikash’s works have remained as some of his bests.
With Bikash's realistic paintings , the art world once again started attracting the common man on the street. This is Bikash’s single most important contribution to art.
Bikash had also earned fame by painting portraits of famous men like Indira Gandhi, Tagore, Satyajit Ray and Samaresh Basu. His series capturing the time of the Naxal movement and the painting of Indira Gandhi with a blurred and white face after her murder earned wide accolades. His series on Prostitutes is also well recognised.
Bikash had inspired a host of painters in India including Sanjay Bhattacharya who is one of the realistic painter from Bengal.
His painting collection can be found in the following gallery:
- National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi
- Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi
- Ministry of Education, New Delhi
- Chandigarh University Museum, Chandigarh
- Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
[edit] Style
Bikash Bhattacharya is credited for bringing back realism into Indian art at a time when the artists in India were leaning more towards distortion of figures and abstraction.
Besides painting the city and its people that he knew so well, Bhattacharjee is also an accomplished portrait painter. Realism is Bhattacharjee's forte. In the process, he explores the possibilities of oil as a medium to the extent that he could depict the exact quality of drapery or the skin tone of a woman, the moldering walls of an old building as if by magic. He also achieves mastery in capturing the quality of light. His love of cinema had a lot to do with this. Bhattacharjee has also worked extensively with pastel.
At his best Bhattacharjee achieves an enigmatic quality in his paintings that works on many levels from the visual to the subconscious. Female beauty is a major preoccupation of Bhattacharjee. But he also creates a varied cast of characters in his canvases- old men and women, children, domestic help. The ability to create an authentic milieu as a background to the characters heightens the drama. Bhattacharjee also excels in his animal studies.
Bikash Bhattacharya has painted in almost all known media, oil, water colour, gouache, pastel . But it is paintings in oil that has drawn the maximum attention. Bikash worked in realistic technique playing with light and shade.
Bikash had been deeply influenced by the surrealists and indeed he has went on record stating that Salvador Dalí had been his favourite painter. In Bikash’s paintings, he infuses imaginary surrealist themes in realistic set up. Thus though in terms of techniques, Bikash is a realist, his themes can be best described as surrealist.
[edit] Personal life
For the past seven years before his death, Bikash was completely paralysed which made painting impossible. Then on Monday morning December 18, 2006 following a prolonged illness he died in a Kolkata nursing home . He was 66. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
[edit] Awards and honours
- Academy of Fine Arts Award, Calcutta(1962)
- National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi(1971)
- Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta, National Award, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi(1972)
- Banga Ratna(1987)
- Padmashree(1988)
- Shiromani Purashkar(1989)
- Nivedita Purashkar, Ramkrishna Vivekananda Ashram(1990)
