Nine years is a long time for any artist to go without an exhibition. But when an artist like Sanjay Bhattacharyya comes back with a show after so long, you know it is something you can’t miss. In Search Of Lost Time (a la recherche du temps perdu…) is the theme this time and Sanjay, using his master strokes, has tried to capture the lost time in his canvases. The upcoming show begins from November 18th and will go on till November 23, from 11.30 am to 6.30 pm at the Jehangir Art Gallery We will get to see his take on the eternal cycle of nature and recapture lost time.
His landscapes hint at nostalgia, yet there is no sense of loss, rather, a feeling of euphoria and deja vu in a positive, happy way. The colours and imagery take you back in time and help you reminisce. The lone boy with a fishing rod, the lotus lake, the movement of the ducks on canvas, the reflection of dawn on a local pond tell us some very vibrant stories.
Talking about the impact of art, Sanjay narrates an experience he had when he climbed up a mountain path in Assam. Suddenly as he reached a point, he beheld an awe-aspiring scene of the river Brahmaputra and that small boy who had come up the path cried out in spontaneous wonder upon beholding the seen. Sanjay says, “I realised that a work of art too must arouse such a response. A painting must make an impact, hold one spell bound.” And interestingly, his art does manage to evoke that spontaneous wonder, and does make that impact that he talks about.
Sanjay says that sometimes he misses being that little boy, who would walk along the footpath at Park Street, in Calcutta, towards the Outram Ghat or Howrah bridge, with a drawing board in hand. “Now I sit in tall buildings, and have lost touch with reality,” he said.