Unspoken words

Tanmay earned his fame to a great degree as a sculptor. Meanwhile, several exhibitions of his sculptures have been organized in Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. We will refer to his skill as a sculptor only to the extent of requirement to the context. Because we do not intend to get introduced to the sculptor but to delve deep into his rather underexposed self–to highlight his skill as an artist, Debovasha is going to present on its website his paintings solely, none of his sculptures. We are not emphasising on the importance of his paintings since they are being exhibited in ‘Debovasha’. What we like to say is that it does not seem difficult to assess his skill and adeptness in art by watching his paintings only, sparing his sculpture.

Having completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Kala Bhavana, the paintings of Tanmay fascinated his the then teacher-cum-mentor Jogen Chowdhury. As Tanmay aspired to become a sculptor, so his spontaneous proficiency in painting never adorned his life of art. But it came to our notice that his mastery over the art of painting may depict his world quite intensely. What happens exactly–as he is a sculptor and his sculptures of bull are nationwide acclaimed and have a steady market, many a time willingly or unwillingly, Tanmay is forced to produce numerous bull-sculptures either on demand or on request, throughout his life. That is what exactly happened in his case. That does never mean that he sculpted them negligently. Rather it would be well enough to say as sculpture determines his reputation as an artist, his professional attentiveness is noteworthy in case of sculpture. We wanted to know that particular side of the artist where his paintings are the product of his innate talent but they are not so cared for, most of the time, they remain concealed, unknown to others. And now we have to look back upon the student life of the artist at Kala Bhavana. And Kala Bhavana stands for the nature of Santiniketan–the array of its own beauty. The red dirt roads of Birbhum, the vast fields that  shake hand with horizon, the multicoloured display of seasonal yields, invitation of leisurely hours spent on the bank of the river Ajay or the call of the Kopai to relish solitude to the heart’s content–together they all fascinated Tanmay like any other student of Kala Bhavana. The lonely palm tree standing on a vast field or the neatly aligned birds having siesta on an electric cable–everything started being depicted in colour and brush. But the artist was merely trying his hand then. As a mature painter, Tanmay’s world did not remain confined in mere description of nature scapes, they became autobiographical reminiscence veiled as subconscious. Tanmay prefers to keep this part of his life confidential. Most of his paintings are drawn in charcoal on full sheet of paper. One may notice the rapid movement of his powerful strokes. The artist remains engrossed in creating something diametrically opposite to prevalent notion of aesthetics but under which condition? The financial prospect of those works does not matter to him much, they are so close to his heart that he was not ready to share them in this exhibition. He could not refute our earnest demand because of his heart felt affection for us. On the next phase, we are surely going to organize an exhibition of his sculptures. But we could not resist ourselves to arrange a show consisting of those paintings which are yet to be exhibited and till now carefully cached by the artist himself. The words that he seldom utters and are closely guarded within himself have now emerged in this exhibition, titled as ‘Unspoken words’.