Withdrawing from the prosaic, a silent observer takes a pause and contemplates on a world parallel to our rushed existence. Through this new body of work, Chandra Bhattacharjee has stepped away into a meditative repose, reflecting on his years of observing those on the sidelines - the anti heroes, and offering us a view to their world.

Caught in a moment’s act and oblivious to the watchful gaze of the onlooker, these figural drawings loom large on all sides. Their presence is as palpable as it is overpowering. Bhattacharjee’s protagonists are poised against empty or blurred backgrounds, captured as fleeting impressions of those hidden in the galactic crowd.

Bhattacharjee’s works often seem dystopic at first glance, with subdued characters, painted in vibrant hues - a quality that is inherent to his paintings, drawing the viewer towards a stillness filled with an underlying sense of disquiet. There is a magical interplay of light and cast shadows punctuated by silhouettes of foliage and the animals and human forms that lie nestled within them. As if a certain beauty is discernible in solitude, pain and desolation.

Here however, he takes a departure from his usual style in both treatment and the subjects he has portrayed. He turns his attention to what is in his immediate vicinity of vision.

Fast and nimble movements of charcoal lines delineate characters - not fictional, but people the artist has encountered many a time in his neighborhood. Salvaged from obscurity, they appear as lone figures with their nondescript paraphernalia. Their presence is compelling and distinctly enhanced by the emptiness that surrounds them.

A star amongst too many celebrates Chandra Bhattacharjee's drawings seen on this scale, like never before, highlighting the beauty that lies in this genre, that is both sublime and needs to be valued.

Uma Ray
Curator