Important Notice

Through his body of work, Chittrovanu Mazumdar voices concerns about identity and urbanization, using the cityscape in decline as a metaphor for urban alienation and the ‘culture of the individual’ that he believes is fostered in metropolitan contexts. Ingeniously playing the abstract against the figurative, and frequently against fragments of stenciled text as well, Mazumdar’s paintings also convey his own experiences of isolation in the cities... Through his body of work, Chittrovanu Mazumdar voices concerns about identity and urbanization, using the cityscape in decline as a metaphor for urban alienation and the ‘culture of the individual’ that he believes is fostered in metropolitan contexts. Ingeniously playing the abstract against the figurative, and frequently against fragments of stenciled text as well, Mazumdar’s paintings also convey his own experiences of isolation in the cities he is most familiar with – Paris and Calcutta. “The visual metaphors present in his works create an effect of disjunction and disruption. Chittrovanu achieves that effect through the swift and charged brush strokes and his aggressive handling of space. He contextualises the active experience of contradiction and paradox that one faces in this hierarchical, heterogeneous, multi-centred world” (Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Grosvenor Gallery artist profile).

In this canvas, as much as the artist’s dense application of paint, it is the superimposed face of a smoking woman and the seductive naked torso next to it that convey Mazumdar’s emotions. He seems to suggest that in the dark recesses of the Calcutta courtyard in the background, and in big cities in general, one’s memories and fantasies are the only company one can rely on. Offering his viewers these vignettes in the collage-like style he is renowned for, the artist provokes in them similar fond memories as well as introspection about their own lives amidst the city’s teeming masses.

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site