Diversity & Individuality: Experiments in 1960s Calcutta

In 1960, a group of young artists seeking independent exhibition spaces in Calcutta banded together to form a new artists group: the Society of Contemporary Artists (SCA). It provided them with a platform to network, opportunities to collaborate with fellow artists and exhibit works. The group was not grounded in any single ideology; its members had very diverse, individual styles, and each created art responding to different themes.

The group continued to expand and grow, and is one of the few artist collectives that is active to this day in India.
 
Image: Members of Society of Contemporary Artists, including Standing: Sunil Das (extreme left), Shyamal Dutta Ray (third from left), Bikash Bhattacharjee (second from right), Dhiran Choudhary (extreme right). The artists sitting include Ganesh Haloi (second from left) and LP Shaw (extreme right).

Image courtesy DAG Modern

The relationship between Krishna and Radha has been a celebrated religious theme for centuries, particularly in Rajput paintings. In one of the themes, Radha's self-abandonment due to the absence of her lover is often portrayed, symbolizing her devotion to Krishna.

The choice of colors and the contrast of light gives a sense of eerie void and melancholy mood to the figure. In this work, Radha grips her lover's flute and brushes her cheek against it, expressing how much she longs for Krishna.

Ray’s sense of humour often came through in his paintings.

For example, in this painting, he brings together two comically unlikely elements. An emaciated and elaborately made up high-society lady is the chief guest here…

...at a competition for body builders!

Shaw's paintings are usually incredibly detailed.

He executes his works with clean, confident lines...

...and many elements within his work are rendered with geometric precision.

Ganesh Pyne joined Society of Contemporary Artists in 1963. A young Ganesh Pyne was profoundly impacted by the communal riots that shook Calcutta in 1946, during which he saw piles of corpses around the devastated city.

The trauma of the event manifested in his works, which are dark dreams inhabited by death, demonic animals and distorted figures.
 
Pyne was inspired by the Bengal School and initially worked with watercolours, before moving on to gouache and tempera.

Somnath Hore presented this work to Madhavan Nayar Foundation in 1992.

Hore's works bear testimony to the social tragedies of the mid-20th century, particularly the Bengal Famine of 1943 and the peasant revolt of 1946. The ravaged bodies of the victims of these disasters became the dominant figures in his prints and sculptures.