Bordering on excellence, a solo exhibition, showcasing a
series of 52 mystical paintings in tempera and wash executed through the
artistic brushstrokes of painter Ratan Acharya, recently concluded at the North
Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. The exhibition was inaugurated by
Swami Supurnananda who said that the paintings, “invoke the spirit of
aesthetics and divine joy in viewers minds”. Divine joy indeed, as most of
Acharya’s works conjure up an expansive realm of silence and peace tracing the
subtlety and inimitable sensitivity invested in the paintings that express a
visual language beyond words.
Of course, the influence of the Bengal school and
Abanindranath Tagore was quite evident. Acharya, even though not hailing from
an artistic family, has in real earnest applied his artistic skills and
imagination as the hallmark of his paintings. For imbibing this quality, he is
really indebted to his guru and mentor, namely his art teacher at his
Narendrapur school, the late Mrinal Das who adopted Acharya as his son.
Among his solo exhibitions, this may be deemed his sixth
coupled with his participation in several group exhibitions. Acharya’s career
as a painter is distinguished by accolades by way of prizes, certificates and
awards particularly the Abanindranath Tagore Memorial Medal by the Indian
Society of Oriental Art, Gaganendranath Tagore Memorial Medal by the same
organisation and the first prize of Art & Craft (Indian Style of Paintings)
from the Calcutta Information and Cultural Department, Government of West
Bengal in 1990. Acharya is now presently engaged as assistant professor, head
of the department, painting, Indian Style, Governement College of Art and
Craft.
The 52 paintings in big and small formats showcased at the
gallery were invested with a sense of the spiritual mysticism in the eternal
beauty beyond the realm of the physical world. The painter’s works reflect a
kind of profound perception — a revelation of aesthetic consciousness in search
of the sphere beyond. What attracts the viewers attention is the grace, elegance,
subtlety and a penchant for the esoteric. With meticulous detailing, the artist
manages to evoke a soft focus and subtle texture. The colour palette is
pre-dominantly mute yet at places dramatic, effected by the outcome of the
medium applied through tempera and wash blending a dash of white to the deeper
shades of red, yellow, blue, green, cobalt brown and black.
That is probably because the thematic ideas demand a
harmonious mix of colours incorporating Hindu deities and mythology, which
ropes in Radha Krishna, Shakuntala, Shiv and Parvati, Meera Pujarini, Antarale
et al. The transcendental quality of poetry and lyrical beauty embellished in
the paintings reminds one of the masterpieces of his earlier predecessors and
legendary stalwarts like Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy and
Dhirendranath Brahma.