The Bengal village has given us one of the outstanding creators in BIKASH PODDAR, Says, Subhra Mazumdar.
The way to the residence of artist Bikash Poddar, through one of the localities tucked behind commercial spaces of the capital city, is a far cry from his art leanings. Being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of daily living, with neighbourhood housewives clustered in front of their doorsteps, toddlers milling around, and men picking their way through vegetable vendors, corner shops and children at their street games, one would be led to believe that his art output would carry an impact of this phenomena. Yet his creations belie such circumstances, and instead offer a palimpsest of country living, opening up fold by fold, on his canvases. Hence at the first encounter with his practice, the viewer is taken aback by the spread of calm landscapes, depicted with soft brushstrokes, in the style of Chinese wash works, by way of comparison.
While the high-pitched exchanges carries on intermittently outside, one is struck by the spruce and well-ordered studio space, from within which, this slightly built, middle-aged artist, has been offering up his stunning creations. This curious contrast between his art making and his work environment, according to their maker, finds its muse, in his childhood upbringing in Kaliyagunj, a remote village in the Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal. And like any average rural set-up in the countryside, the study of Fine Art as a scholarly pursuit, was an unknown phenomena in these places. In fact, confesses the artist, Bikash Poddar and his kin did not even know about the existence of an art institution for learning art and seeking admission into it, was nothing short of a chimera.
But much before Poddar’s admission to the prestigious College of Art at Kolkata had come about, the child Bikash was completely taken up with his childhood surroundings. There was a patch of forested area behind his Kaliyagunj home and this slice of Paradise was grist to his artistic mill. No matter where he is residing or working, the imprint of those deep woods behind his childhood home, never fails to surface on his mental trajectory. Thereafter, memory becomes his subject of art making and lo and behold! A painting is born.
When it came to choosing art as his choice of professional studies, Poddar, surprisingly had not opted for a course in Fine Art at the prestigious Kolkata College of Fine Art. Instead, he had been admitted as a student in the five year course in Applied Art which he had mastered and emerged with brilliant recognition. However, even at this stage, painting was his hobby admits the master . With his formal education coming to an end therefore, his employability had taken him in the direction of the advertising firm Alfred Advertising Private Limited .
The work was in keeping with his education, where, using his computer generated skills, the young employee Bikash Poddar, spun out advertising campaign matter, every fortnight. While the work was somewhat far removed from his hobbyist inklings, the artist was scrupulously quality conscious as far as his output was concerned. But the urge to paint and share his creations with the viewers remained a persistent urge, that surfaced every now and then with relentless regularity. The need of the hour was to take a life changing decision and give way to his innermost urges, irrespective of the consequences.
The professional turned hobby painter took a somewhat untried path to make known his capabilities to the viewing public. Yes, it meant clearing a space on a public path a path that led to some embassy addresses and begin an on-the-spot demonstration of his works, as also his artistic skills at work Not only was this a rather unprofessional start point to a serious career in Art, it was also fraught with a complexity of mistakes, that would spell ultimate doom, however sincere the effort behind it might be.
But even when Poddar had adopted the tried and tested route to public attention as regards his creativity, his luck was no better. When he approached galleries with his work, there were no offers by them, for bookings. Elsewhere, the paintings were sent back as outright rejects. Hence there was no publicity in the Press about his art making. Thus the entire exercise of exhibiting his Art was being met with closed doors. But the urge to paint on his own terms had not dimmed, despite so much negativity along the route.
Then, as the saying goes: “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn,” his individual case was no different. In 1999, a year that is embedded in his mental makeover, Poddar got his first response to display his artworks, at the prestigious Taj Art Gallery, in Mumbai’s Taj Hotel. There were enough footfalls to cheer his artistic heart as guests and regulars streamed in, to view his novel creations and fill their individual remarks in the Visitors’ Book. This show was soon followed by an offer from the capital’s Lalit Kala Akademi, India’s National Academy of Art, to display his artworks at the Rabindra Bhavan Gallery on their premises. Thus these initial recognitions from places of repute gave way, expectedly to more interest in his art making. Before long, Poddar was receiving enquiries for his workmanship from gallerists, in cities like Hyderabad, Bombay, Delhi, Kolkata and Baroda, to name a few. And while many an art maker would begin to rest on his laurels and develop a signature style of Art, the young Poddar ventured into every exhibition with the conviction that his works should be different from the works of others, in terms of technique, besides their subject matter.
And to this day, Poddar recalls his interaction with his first buyer, a Mrs Gupta, who had acquired his art a quarter century ago. “It was an exhibition on the premises of the Embassy of Japan in India, when this art lover had acquired my work for her personal space.” Naturally the subject of the painting too, is etched in his memory as an ever fresh experience. “It was the painting of a bird in flight across the open countryside, on a two-by two feet canvas spread; a black and white artwork, that is still fresh in my thoughts.”
Yet on the other hand, there was no denying the fact that while he was suffused with elation at the recognition that his works were receiving, he was also conscious of the chasm of ignorance he was under, regarding the process of painting. In all sincerity, Poddar admits, “I had nograsp of what is painting. I was in need of education as also assistance to fathom the grammar of painting, the requirement of neatness in the work and the all-important need of a meticulous finish to an artwork. Besides these external requirements, the works needed to exude my capability of balancing the different inputs in the work, the compositional strengths in the entire work and by far, the need to maintain an ever vigilant eye on quality consciousness, in the finished product. These above tenets made me imbibe the habit of assessing my output with a critical eye every six months to one year. In fact, I am still a learner.”
As to what makes his art so appealing to the viewer, Poddar puts it down to his well-researched and unique technique of painting. What he informs his viewers is that the entire process is undertaken with the precision of a scientist in readiness for an important experiment that is headed in the direction of a discovery? Known widely for applying the wash technique of water colour onto the canvas surface, via a self- evolved technical expertise, he freely admits that it is the task of keeping the canvas surface moist, by placing it on a board. In-between, when the surface looses its required moisture, the artist revisits his process of water application, taking care to control the flow, from the sides of the canvas. This process lasts for the maximum period of an hour, and since he is an early riser, it is usually around 4.00 a.m. that the work of the master begins.
Interestingly there is no prior sketching on the surface, and as he pours colours with his expertise, he also tilts the canvas, with studied control. This is how the imaginary landscapes, harking back to his days in the village and the jungle surround, come to surface on the works. Then when he introduces a figurative inclusion on them, he resorts to using the drawing pencil, for the faintest of strokes.
All his technical exercise is preceded by a pre-process of due contemplation. Thus the order of placement of every item and colour combination on the surface, is mentally sketched prior to the actual visible strokes and washes. Then there begins a controlled flowing of colours, so that the end result, is a precise execution and not a figment of imagination yielding surprising outcomes.
Not just the colour control, the subject that the master intends to paint are also predestined and the color for them pre-ordained in a way, as the painter sees the image mentally, before the product takes shape on the canvas.
And this is not all: “Sometimes if I am not satisfied with the output, I resort to corrective measures and this might take up hours of work, into the late hours.” But these incidents of drastic correctional routine is according to the mental picture of the work in the painter’s inner trajectory, and before the product takes shape on the canvas. And this is not all: “Sometimes if I am not satisfied with the output, I resort to corrective measures and this might take up hours of work, into the late hours.” But these incidents of drastic correctional routine are few and far between, as the years go by, he admits.
Curious to know more about his painting process, invariably leads visitors into queries about his favoutrite themes. While the artist anchors the beginnings to his native village and its surrounds, today, the range has not shifted drastically, for he sums up his themes for Art making in the words…”nadi, pahaar, pukur, maatir ghar, bamboo, figures in singles and in conversation, domestic animals and pots and pans, that help to imbibe atmosphere into my work.” Hence it is his rural beginning that have provided an inexhaustible wellspring for his creative energies and have led to an emergence of a imaginative look at rural Bengal in all seasons, ranging from the season of lashing rains, to cloudy days, to times of sunset and sunrise, scorching afternoons and soothing twilights. In the figurative category, it is the feminine form that takes precedence in the thinking stage. But there is never any forced inclusion in the work. “I often recall a scene in a Satya Jit Ray film shot where a small intervention in the placement says a million words. In my case too, taking succour from such ideas, I place as few people as possible and interpret each figure’s presence on the surface, in a different light.”
And like any an art maker, Bikash Poddar too, has delved into a few asides in his art making process. These include making well defined artworks with found objects, like a water carrier poised in the act of carrying his load, using a piece of found wood. In his studio space theye rests on a handful of sculptures of facial forms, complete with intricate finery and adornments, or even an arrangement of artifacts and reading matter, where he is at ease seated on a floor mat, while the room is spaced out with greenery, books, a sofa-bench and plenty of light streaming into the room. In these modest surroundings, it is all the more inspiring to realize the depth of /poddar’s art making expertise. While he has built up a substantial collective of art collectors world wide, as also a considerable of admirers who gasp at his workmanship when Face to face with it, what the artist cherishes above all, is none of these. For him, the pleasure lies in his being an Indian artist who has pioneered the wash technique on acrylic works, on home ground, and till date, according to the artist, he is the sole ‘ferreter’ of it on the Indian art scene.
Thus the persona and the artworks executed by the artist, have a deep-rooted relatedness. They are not conjoined twins: nor are they combined forms; they are individual art renderings, that speak to viewers on many levels. At one point they engage viewers by their unusual technique; at other levels they harken the rural connectivity as a long remembered afterthought. At still other levels they are impressive by their meticulous execution, and elsewhere they bring forth the pull of memories, from a little village in rural Bengal where a family that had no links with Art, has given us one of the outstanding creators of our time. His works therefore and his journey in art making are a cause of celebration and recognition in matters of all that exists under the umbrella of Fine Art.
