Shuvaprasanna is a Calcutta Artist…nothing describes him better. As he says- “There isn’t another city like Calcutta anywhere in the world. In the heart of Calcutta, I find innumerable themes, subjects.”
The city has always found a place in his frames. Be it the Naxal movement of the 1960s or the bleak economical conditions of the 1980s, Shuvaprasanna has diligently captured the fluctuating moods of this vibrant city. Sometimes he draws the city in a general, almost in non-specific way and at other times he chooses to depict its people, its places, and the distinctive features of the city. Calcutta in all its sickness and sordidness, its violence and vulnerability found her voice in Shuvaprasanna’s Paintings.
Born in the year of Indian independence (1947), Shuvaprasanna embodies the hope and the confidence of the young nation that India was. He graduated from the Indian College of Art at Calcutta in 1969, and in that very year he co-founded an organization called Art and Artists in the city. Less than a decade later, in 1976, he set up his own Art school and named it The College of Visual Arts.
A Calcutta suburb played home to Shuvaprasanna’s dream project - this art school was a first of its kind, focusing primarily on village art. Every year since 1970, he has exhibited in both solo and group shows in Calcutta and in different cities around the world.
Shuvaprasanna’s Paintings
Shuvaprasanna paintings are a delightful mix of fantasy and neo-realism. The artist creates a surreal Calcutta in his paintings, the narrow lanes of North Calcutta and the moss covered buildings, the rooftops of which are frequented by quaint little crows (which are not considered to be ominous creatures but are seen as harbingers of good news in Bengal). The Calcutta of his imagination strangely resonates with the Calcutta of the city dwellers experience.
Shuvaprasanna’s paintings indeed are drawn from his personal interactions with Calcutta's urban milieu.
|
