Page 235 - Manifest September 2024

Bikash’s

culturally

conscious

portraits

Artist Bikash Bhattacharjee spent a lonely childhood chequered with
sadness after his father died. Growing up, he spent a lot of time roaming
through the streets of Kolkata in areas such as Jorasanko, Shobha Bazaar,
and Kumartuli. During these meandering experiences, he witnessed
traditional artisans making clay idols of goddesses for Durga Puja and
also watched women from affluent households worship the deity in their
palatial mansions. The goddess Durga became a quintessential inspiration
to the artist, and in a way, he saw the strength of Durga in every woman,
whether she was young, old, rich, poor, moral or immoral. These memories
and inspirations became instrumental in the making of his famous
Durga series of paintings which he executed during the year 1989-90.

This series became an epitome of his appreciation of women. Rejecting
the hypocritical deification of women, the Durgas on his canvases were
not just paragons of beauty and power but embodied all the virtues of
women. Abandoning his earlier practice of reimagining the human figure
with divine elements, the artist found a Durga in every ordinary woman he
encountered. Instead, he represents a sense of divinity to these women by
bestowing them with a third eye, which has always been a conspicuous
feature of the traditional Durga idols. Going beyond the societal concept of
caste, class, and other segregations, the series became an ode by the artist
to the nurturing, resilient, and protective nature of women.