BANGALORE: Basuki Dasgupta’s mixed media murals will present a contemporary folk tableau that blurs the lines between pastoral and modern, abstract and rustic. Basuki 2011, an exhibition of otherworldly murals by Bengal-born artist Basuki Dasgupta will be on display at Kynkyny Art till July 2.A leading figure in the Indian art scene, Dasgupta’s newest series walks the razor’s edge between contemporary and folk, the here and now and the far-out.Steeped in folk lore and Hindu mythology, the mixed media murals present a rich tableau of evocative and ethnic female protagonists (created in the mould of tribal women and Hindu goddesses) and quasi-rural figures — but the stories they tell are current as well as universal.Schooled in Santiniketan and mentored by the likes of Jogen Chowdhury, Dasgupta’s artistic philosophy is one of building bridges between nature and man, humans and gods and between people themselves.It is this premise of an interconnected world made of dualities that Dasgupta portrays in his latest works.The haunting, marionettelike characters of Dasgupta’s murals inhabit multiple worlds simultaneously — marrying the rustic and post modern and the traditional with the progressive.In a stylised visual language that is typical of his oeuvre, Dasgupta creates a unique universe where time flows paradoxically and veers back and forth between abstract caricature and indigenous imagery.MythsDasgupta, who spent his childhood among the terracotta temples of Bishnupur in West Bengal, is at heart, a narrator of modern mythology.He reinterprets old-world myths in the light of the present.In this series too, he draws heavily on the powerful archetypes of Durga and Ganesha to depict the primeval tussle between ego and self and darkness and light. Goddess Durga, who Dasgupta sees who as a timeless symbol, is in fact, a recurrent motif in his art.“I believe that the legend of Durga-Mahishasura is not merely a part of mythology, but is very much a concept belonging to the present day. Durga is an expression of compassion, truth and magnanimity as against Mahishasura, who represents greed, ego and arrogance,” he added.MuralsYet another distinctive feature of Dasgupta’s practice is his rejection of flat and featureless surfaces. Instead, his larger-than-life murals are textured and rough.Dasgupta’s murals on canvas almost seem to mimic the earthy and mysterious rhythms of terracotta, a medium he experimented with in his early days as an artist.With a masters degree in mural-making and expertise across genres like Jaipuri, Italian and Pompeii frescoes, Dasgupta is an expert muralist who has worked with a host of media including egg and Casein tempera, terracotta, cement, sand and metal.“Physically, the wide space and interplay of lights on different surfaces draw me to the medium,” he said. But Dasgupta goes beyond the physics of the medium and believes that the mural also represents a ‘symbolic wall’ where viewers can interface between their physical selves and the infinite.MusesThe content of Dasgupta’s murals is equally intriguing.Critics believe that the whimsical animals, birds and fish are created in the ‘Pat Chitra’ tradition and the puppet-like human figures with slanting eyes and a thick pout are modelled after the soulful Baul musicians of Bengal.Dasgupta’s imagery is largely pastoral, drenched in vivid greens, pinks and yellows.Ultimately, the figures and imagery are a composite collage of the artist’s many and varied muses, which include the temples of Bishnupur, nature, light, rain, clouds, terracotta, Santiniketan, traditional music, mythical figures, folk stories, the mandolin and Bengali art.While the works may be layered and abstract, the effect they have is spontaneous and heart warming. The murals instantly connect with the viewer, and need no interpreter, critic or medium to demystify them. Dasgupta is something of a folk revivalist in this regard and his art reflects the authenticity and lack of pretence that is typical of folk culture. At the heart of Dasgupta’s art-making is his earthy persona.“I write like a ‘potua’ and paint like a ‘folk painter’,” he said and went on to explain,“I was born and brought up in a folk environment. I lived with folk rituals, dance, music, drama, art and literature.I feel folk is more down-to-earth, where art is an integrated as part of life, and in no way it is alien to that particular society.” With folk influences as his starting point, Dasgupta however, makes a clear departure from tradition, and steers into a uniquely individual and wholly contemporary territory. From here on, the narrative is new and bold, and very much a part of our urban time-space reality.
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