Debjani Dakshit’s paintings are replete with pain and agony of existence, says renowned art critic Mrinal Ghosh.
Art is always a socio-temporal aesthetic expression of human sensibility. In this context Debjani Dakshit (Dasgupta) has come out as a significant painter based in Kolkata during the last two decades through her critical vision of life. Modernist art in most cases is generated out of the contradictory emotions of pleasure and agony, hope and despair and such other positive and negative aspects of life. Defiance and resistance in many occasions come out as a significant mode of expression. Debjani in one of her solo exhibitions held at Kolkata had written in the brochure of the show about her artistry like this: ‘her art depicts melancholy and liberation of the soul’. When an artist highlights the pain and agony of the existence, creativity comes nearer to the possible root of liberation. In Debjani’s paintings also these two aspects are replete with each other. There are paintings, where this contradiction is more prominent. There are others, mostly her recent paintings, where the devastated aspect of the existence is more pronounced.
One of her exhibitions held at Kolkata in Charubasana Gallery from December 4 to 9, 2023 was much appreciated. Jogen Chowdhury, the renowned painter and art activist, applauded her works. He said in a personal note written on December 9, 2023: “Her works are much matured, which was beyond my expectation. … She has assimilated reality with the unreal. Simultaneously, her realism has merged into abstraction. … I feel among the contemporary women artists she deserves special recognition.”
The remarks of other art historians and critics also point to her original vision. Manasij Majumder commented, “The acrylics of Debjani Dakshit are remarkable for their conceptual vigour and edgy execution. … Painted in abstract and figurative idiom, images of pain and suffering recur in her canvases, treated with great deal of diversity and freshness.” Nanak Ganguly had written, “She continuously lives in her times and wishes to engage historical events rather than withdrawn from them, the time is fraught with new as well as abiding traumas. She depicts them with extreme sensibility and candour.” In all the above comments there are a few common points, such as her trend towards abstraction, her conceptual vigour, abiding traumas etc. These are some of the characteristics of modernism, where expression generates out of the decays of social reality and moral values. Modernist and post-modern art, in that way express some kinds of insurrection and insurgence. The last two lines of the poem Funeral Blues by W.H.Auden (1907-1973) reads like this: ‘Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods; / For nothing now can ever come to any good.’ Such a discontent may have its roots in the personal psychology of the creator or the recoil against the surrounding rot.
To have an idea of the socio-temporal and aesthetic leaning of Debjani we may look at her development as an artist. She was born in 1972 in the rural environment of Bardhaman in West Bengal. Her father Ashok Kumar Dasgupta was a person of artistic temperament and a successful photographer. Debjani had an inclination towards painting since her childhood, but she could completely dedicate her to the artistic creativity after her graduation in Philosophy in 1994 from Bardhaman University. In the meantime, she faced various personal trauma that had a massive impact on her personal psychology. She could conceive that such aberrations are the result of general decays of the human values within the society. The personal and the impersonal merged within her deeper psyche and regulated her vision towards her personal expressions.
In a broader perspective, if we look at the development of modernism in our art, it is noticed that the social turmoil in the decade of 1940s has generated a kind of rebellion among the socially conscious artist. They moved away from the classic mould of the previous neo-Indian school to express their reactions against the spoils and decays of reality and shattered the sobriety of the natural form through intrusion into the primitive and Western modernist modes. The art of Ramkinkar Baij, Somnath Hore, Paritosh Sen and many others are very much exemplary in this context. This discontent has gradually been enhanced and during the globalised post-modern era of 21st century, it has taken multiple conceptual trends. The paintings of Debjani have been created out of such discontent, yet there is another kind of contradiction in her preparation as an artist. To have initial training in basic painting techniques she was admitted to the school of ‘Indian Society of Oriental Art’ in the year 2012 and trained there for three years. This ‘Society’ is a premier institution formed in 2007 as the official mediator or agent of neo-Indian School. Amongst others, one of its functions was to train art aspirants towards acquainting them with the form and aesthetics of Indian style of painting. In the course of time, its process of imparting art education has changed. In 21st century it was not limited with the style and technique of Indian painting only. Yet there is some link with the initial classic philosophy. Debjani had the privilege to be acquainted with that aesthetic norm. From 2015 she started to train under Samir Aich, who is a renowned artist and came to limelight during 1980s. The forms of Aich are rebellious, expressionist and primitivist. Debjani had the fire in her that she earned from her own life process. So, the above two apparently contradictory norms merged within her artistic self and gave rise to the forms and concepts that she is working on.
We may look at a few of her paintings to have an idea of her form and philosophy. In one of her earlier works, she depicts a cluster of women and men, who were going, might be in search of work. The distortion of human forms and chromatic synchronisation is developed towards a modernist sensibility based on the classicist background, may be earned by her attachment with that traditional school. When she paints a mythical icon of Mahishasuramardini (Goddess Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon) she transforms the myth in a modernist structure. The acrylic painting titled Night Bloom is an abstract expressionist work where she can merge both classicism and modernism, also the reality with abstraction. Wings painted in acrylic and dry pastel is the representation of the cutaway wings of a big bird. Despite temporary defeat the aspiration of human being does not get exhausted.
Still, we want to fly high. This is the message she wants to convey through this painting. Remains, a painting done by her in 2019 painted in acrylic and dry pastel is a hilly landscape, where the skeleton of a beast rests in desolation. From these few examples we can have some idea of her forms and concepts on which she is now working incessantly and has achieved a very original mode of expression.
