Bird images are often considered the best sources of inspiration for young learners in art colleges. This often results in spontaneous but tentative lines derived from imagination or from books that are given to them. Even in the powerful hands of professionals, birds acquire a decorative elegance that is confined to attractively framed works in drawing rooms.

It is a wholly different experience at the Chitrakoot art gallery where around 50 works of masters emotionally attached to the environment at Santiniketan are on display. It is an event called “Birds of Paradise by Masters” that art lovers may not have experienced till now and something that bird watchers would find academically enriching and emotionally fulfilling.

The sheer variety of the compositions by Gaganendranath Tagore, Abanindranath, Nandalal Bose and Rabindranath is quite stunning. If there are several great painters in other parts of the world who have excelled in their imaginative compositions by putting birds of their choice in their natural environment, what comes through in this show are lifelike depictions of the beautiful creatures examined within a close range with all the wealth of their natural colours. The paintings look like frozen moments of winged splendour just before the little creatures are ready to fly.

The best known bird sanctuary in Bengal exists on the outskirts of Kolkata. It is called the Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary that has been looked after by the West Bengal government since 2005. It has a delightful collection ranging from woodpeckers to spotted doves and many more. But bird lovers have reason to be delighted that Prakash Kejariwal of Chitrakoot has opened the gallery’s doors to a mesmerising collection he has been making over the last few years.

No gallery in the city has perhaps taken so much trouble to present a show that brings a sense of sadness that these winged creatures have, to a large extent, fallen prey to the explosion of the urban jungle. Many of them are no longer visible in the natural environment in which they had been depicted by the masters many years ago.

Some of the greatest artists have created wonderful compositions of dark birds against snowy landscapes or they may have produced dramatic contrasts between white birds and the restless waves of the sea. When it comes to the birds created by Abanindranath, there is a lyrical quality about his crows, ostriches, bulbuls, parrots and peacocks.

They resemble the playful ducks that appear in one of Nandalal’s works.
Abanindranath was the leading exponent of the Bengal School and the prime mover in countering the influence of the western style taught in art schools.

The show reveals how immaculately he looked at the natural world through an emotional attachment. How he had acquired a fascination for birds is a matter of speculation. There is one school that traces the love for birds to a pastime that belonged to his illustrious elders.

The steady stream of water colours with which he created a winged world found echoes in the water colours that came from Rabindranath. In his later years, the poet had taken to the expression of an inner world through bold lines and colours.

His birds were impressionistic images that, quite typically, could find varying interpretations. But there is one quote from the Nobel Laureate that lies at the heart of his creations in this category, “My heart, the bird of the wilderness, has found its sky in your eyes”.

The exhibition also comes alive in the water colours by Nandalal Bose and Gaganendranath, the latter also revealing an immaculate flair for pen and ink — a medium that Gopal Ghosh has also used with great relish.

But to complete the overall encounter with the reality of the winged universe, the show brings selections from the work of Jamini Roy, Zainul Abedin, Kalikinkar Ghosh Dastidar and Ramendranath Chakraborty. The lingering touch of nostalgia mixed with exciting new discoveries should make this unique encounter with the winged world quite memorable.

The exhibition is on till 9 May