Important Notice

Bikash Bhattacharjee’s canvases capture reality through a humanist lens, though his imagery goes beyond realistic representation to create a sense of strangeness as seen in the present lot. His figures rely on the honest expressions conveyed through their eyes, which are regarded as essential elements- “An eye contact between the viewer and the viewed figure establishes the channel through which empathy and understanding can follow, an entering... Bikash Bhattacharjee’s canvases capture reality through a humanist lens, though his imagery goes beyond realistic representation to create a sense of strangeness as seen in the present lot. His figures rely on the honest expressions conveyed through their eyes, which are regarded as essential elements- “An eye contact between the viewer and the viewed figure establishes the channel through which empathy and understanding can follow, an entering of one person by another.” (Marta Jakimowicz-Karle, Bikash Bhattacharjee, Bangalore: Kala Yatra, 1991, p. 1)

Since the mid-1960s, Bhattacharjee consistently depicted characters in a frontal posture, emphasising their significance as the focal point of his artwork, thus maintaining his engagement with portraiture. His nuanced depictions of diverse subjects, representing various walks of life, reject clichés and serve as a powerful tool for social criticism that was born out of the politically charged atmosphere of Calcutta in the 1940s.

The present lot, Boy From Simla, corresponds to Bhattacharjee’s encounter with a local boy during a morning walk in Shimla. “A faraway, snow-clad landscape, quiet and idyllic provides the background to the figure of a bigger boy standing against a dramatic, bare tree a part of whose trunk replaces his neck. Unassuming children as our link to the primeval unity with mysterious nature? The symbiosis has been suggested here in the boy’s stiff, unruly hair which follows the rhythm and directions of the thin, leafless twigs. A sense of pain and tension can be felt from his pupil-devoid face-barren like the winter countryside. Even his woollen sweater seems to be metamorphosing into frost-bitten land.” (Jakimowicz-Karle, 1991, p. 17)

Bhattacharjee’s education in academic realism, which prioritised capturing likeness along with the mood, expression and atmosphere of subjects, contributed to his humanistic vision. “His stylistic stand is thus poised somewhere between realism and the outer limits of surrealism. With his constant preoccupation with social realities, Bikash has little taste for digging out from deep within his individual self some dubious forms and figures for a surrealist construct of the unconscious.” (“Pranab Ranjan on Bikash Bhattacharjee,” Manasij Majumder, Close to Events: Works of Bikash Bhattacharjee, New Delhi: Niyogi Books, 2007, p. 229)

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