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Lot Essay
Bikash Bhattacharjee was introduced to Marxist ideology in the 1960s, when he became a member of the Communist party of Calcutta. Bhattacharjee shared their values and was drawn to the party for its idealism and desire to culturally and morally revitalise the city. He was greatly inspired by the music of the time that projected "[...] powerfully evocative and rhythmic images of the life of the poor, workers and peasants, their struggles and aspirations without any trace of maudlin sentiments either in tune or words." (M. Majumder, Bikash Bhattacharjee: Close to Events, New Delhi, 2007, p. 65)
Family, is a striking example of Bhattacharjee's technical skill and merging surrealist-realist style. Through despair and ruin, he projects images of the sublime. The emaciated figures bathed in vibrant jewel-like colours are imbued with a sense of dignity and cohesiveness. They are reminiscent of "[...] artists like Jainul Abedin, Chittaprosad, Somnath Hore, who, despite the vogue of aggressive modernist subjectivism on the rise since the '40s trod a different path and turned out a body of drawings and prints depicting in bold lines and edgy texture, the images of the downtrodden and the underclass who starved on the streets of Calcutta during the year of famine, or lost their dear ones in the communal riots on the eve of Independence or were reduced to rootless refugees after the Partition of India. In their art they indulged in no subjectivising formal distortion but charged every brush stroke or stretch of line with both representational clarity and an expressiveness that evoked strong responses from the art audience and laymen alike." (M. Majumder, Bikash Bhattacharjee: Close to Events, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 65-68)
Family, is a striking example of Bhattacharjee's technical skill and merging surrealist-realist style. Through despair and ruin, he projects images of the sublime. The emaciated figures bathed in vibrant jewel-like colours are imbued with a sense of dignity and cohesiveness. They are reminiscent of "[...] artists like Jainul Abedin, Chittaprosad, Somnath Hore, who, despite the vogue of aggressive modernist subjectivism on the rise since the '40s trod a different path and turned out a body of drawings and prints depicting in bold lines and edgy texture, the images of the downtrodden and the underclass who starved on the streets of Calcutta during the year of famine, or lost their dear ones in the communal riots on the eve of Independence or were reduced to rootless refugees after the Partition of India. In their art they indulged in no subjectivising formal distortion but charged every brush stroke or stretch of line with both representational clarity and an expressiveness that evoked strong responses from the art audience and laymen alike." (M. Majumder, Bikash Bhattacharjee: Close to Events, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 65-68)