17 artists of Amar 90’R group of GCAC, Kolkata alumni exhibit at Lalit Kala Akademi

The six-day mix-media exhibition, which concluded on Saturday, was aimed to be an “honest, undisguised reflection of what lies within the soul”, explored through a diverse collection of paintings, sculptures and art installations

lalit kala akademi The artists of the Amra 90’R group at their exhibition Praner Maajhey Aye at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi. (Credit: Lalit Kala Akademi)

Praner Maajhey Aye (Come Within Our Souls), a six-day mixed-media group exhibition of 17 artists of the Amra 90’R group — formed by the Alumni Association of the Government College of Art and Craft (GCAC), Kolkata — concluded at the Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi, on Saturday. Inaugurated by artists Tirthankar Biswas and Saswati Chaudhuri on December 24, the group calls the exhibition an “honest, undisguised reflection of what lies within the soul”, explored through a diverse collection of paintings, sculptures and art installations.

The artists that displayed their work at the exhibition were Anjana Datta, Amrita Mojumder, Bishwanath De, Chandrashekhar Das, Indrajit Banerjee, Prabir Kumar Das, Pradip Kumar Sikdar, Rabindra Prasad Bandyopadhyay, Romi Majumder, Rajat Subhra Bandyopadhyay, Supriti Banerjee Sujata Khastgir, Sumitabha Pal, Shyamali Dhar, Subrata Basu, Subrata Mallik and Tapan Bhattacharjee.

For Dhar, one of the artists at the exhibition and a student of Ajoy Ghosh and Shankar Nath Aich at GCAC, her subjects spontaneously arrive from her mundane experiences and observations of nature. She explores these in her series of Gausche paintings using the wash technique in An Exploration of the Dreamscape. “Often in my paintings, the protagonist appears with the traditional rendering of colour and atmosphere and can be seen being engaged in performing regular jobs,” she says.

Anjana Datta’s Birds Eye View series (Credit: Lalit Kala Akademi)

Inspired by Abanindranath Thakur and MAR Chugtai’s paintings, Dhar also draws artistic inspiration from characters from history, myth through and her distinct approach.

In Anjana Datta’s Goat series, the artist paints landscapes from a bird’s eye view amid that intricate landscape. “I try to imagine animals, humans and such life forms. It is a manifestation of nature. My latest work portrays a pregnant goat embodied by the landscape. While the goat alludes to motherhood, the future of nature seems bleak, as shown by the smoggy landscape,” says Datta, professor at the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship, Kolkata.

The Aamra 90’R Group organised their first exhibition at the ICCR Art Gallery in 2013. (Credit: Lalit Kala Akademi)

Born out of the journey of 54 participants of the GCAC Alumni Association that started in 1984, the group calls the exhibition a “celebration of art, love and friendships — a proud display of solidarity in times of turmoil”. Romi Mazumdar, art teacher and member of Amra 90’R states that the group came together to maintain healthy friendships, nurture creativity and provide food for the soul. “I was devastated when we started to form the group. I was looking for my friends and they were scattered all over. Then we decided to stay connected to help each other grow and maintain a balance in our lives and help others.”

The Aamra 90’R Group organised their first exhibition at the ICCR Art Gallery in 2013. “We go places to showcase our works and to see the response of the audience. Of course, there is a selling factor included,” says Mazumdar.

Apart from organising exhibitions, the group art conducts workshops and supports each other in times of crisis. “Surviving in our community is very difficult. In this materialistic world, money matters, and depending just on art or craft to survive without a job or other work can land us in trouble. In India, the government still needs to do something significant for the fine arts sector. Those who are famous, have upgraded themselves on their own,” says Mazumdar.

First uploaded on: 30-12-2023 at 16:56 IST

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