A group of talented Kolkata artists came together to create the Society of Contemporary Artists. Th­rough the decades, the group threw up many who went on to become some of India’s most famous artists. The society’s Golden Jubilee celebrations are being held during 2009 and 2010 and a number of art galleries are focusing on the works of the past and present members of this society. The inauguration of the celebrations was held at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture in Kolkata and included an illustrated talk on contemporary art trends by art historian Saryu Doshi, a lecture presentation on Ramkinkar Baij by eminent sculptor K S Radhakrishnan and other events.

The exhibition at the Birla Academy, of the society’s members, brought to public view many works that have never been seen. During the exhibition, a workshop brought to light the technique that was earlier used, by demonstrations on the original etching machine that had been installed by the society in 1960.

There were a number of important works that made viewers stand in stunned siIence. Among these were some sculptures by Meera Mukherjee, made in the ‘lost-wax’ traditional folk art technique. Another artist, who I was particularly happy to see represented, was Nikhil Biswas, whose untimely death made his works difficult to find. I count myself as fortunate for having had the opportunity of being able to see the works of these renowned artists.

In my last column, I had written about the exhibition of this group of artists at the Akriti Art Gallery in Kolkata. Here also, there was an effort to bring the best possible samples of the works of these artists. What was particularly interesting was to see the earlier works of some of these artists at the Birla Academy, many of whom seem to have changed their styles totally, moving from figurative to abstracts and vice-versa.

Also, there was another very interesting show. This featured the works of Sobhan Dutta, an artist trained in India, who has been resident abroad for the past few years. The show was a combination of installations, digital prints and paintings. An interesting installation consisted of 50 paper plates lined up on the wall in four rows. Each had the face of a girl, sketched with a ballpen and shaded with tea and coffee. The children were from various parts of the world and the theme — the fate of the girl child all over the world.

Another of the artist’s works showed a number of hands held up – these were the hands of children, again representing different races. Sobhan said that this action was being used by people in many ways – to draw attention, to agree, to vote and so on.

But, perhaps, the most important statement that Sobhan made came from his painting, ‘Leather Jacket’, done in acrylic, charcoal, pencil on digital paper. It shows the torso of a figure in which the skin is slit down the front and has a zipper like a jacket, which is not very different from the cloth jacket drawn next to it. The artist says that humans are created in the image of their forefathers and have a responsibility to their ancestors that is covered with their skin — almost like a jacket. Interesting thought and an interesting depiction!

The writer is a painter and has won

numerous advertising design awards