Bimal Das Gupta didn't know anything in the world except his art: Paresh Maity

Q. You had a close association with Bimal Das Gupta. How did this association begin?

My first interaction with him took place while I was studying for my Masters in Fine Arts at the University of Hyderabad, in 1990. I got an invitation from a very famous gallery in Delhi, called The Village Gallery. So, with 25 of my watercolours, I went to Delhi to meet the gallery owner Dolly Narang, because she wanted to have a solo exhibition of my watercolours. At that time, in 1990, she had an exhibition of Satyajit Ray’s art works. As you know, Ray originally was an artist. She was also in conversation about having the first exhibition of Ganesh Pyne.

I arrived [in Delhi], 35 years ago, without being able to inform her, and missed Ms Narang, as she had gone off to Calcutta. One of my teachers had earlier told me that if I ever go to Delhi, I should meet his friend called Bimal Das Gupta, who was a great watercolourist, a great human being, and he was very fond of my work. I had asked how he could be fond of my work, because he was very senior, like my father or grandfather’s age. My teacher said, Bimal-da knew my work because it had been published in Desh, Anand Bazar and Telegraph.

I had Bimal-da’s number and called him from a coin-box phone. Although I didn’t have much hope, he welcomed me very warmly. He had thought that I was older than what I was; he had never guessed that I was still a student. So when I arrived, he was very surprised at how young I was. I showed him the watercolours that I had got with me; he invited me into his house and asked me to have tea.

Bimal-da was just like a kid. He was a real artist, and did not know anything else in the rest of the world except his paintings. His love, everything, was like a child’s.

He told me that although things could be very difficult in Delhi, he didn’t want to discourage me. He introduced me to Mr and Mrs Bhatia, who had just opened a gallery in Greater Kailash [GK] 2. They had lived in Kolkata for 12 years, and were fond of Bengalis and artists. A solo exhibition of 23 of my paintings was arranged at that gallery; I also gave two paintings to the annual, national exhibition by All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society [AIFACS]. I received an award for the best painting for the artworks at the AIFACS exhibition.

This is how my journey started. My destiny took me to Delhi, to Bimal-da, and Mr and Mrs Bhatia. They were adamant that I should stay in Delhi and complete my MFA, and not return to Hyderabad. Subsequently, I got admission at the Delhi College of Art.

Paresh Maity at work on a canvas in his studio in Delhi. Image: Amit Verma

Q. What were your interactions with him like?

This is how my day-to-day journey with Bimal-da started. I used to live in GK2, while Bimal-da lived in Kailash Colony, in a corner house. Every second day, whenever I had the chance, I would go to his house to show my paintings. He used to show me his paintings like a child. He did not know anything else except art. He had started his abstract paintings. I would ask him, what are you thinking? He said, you know, I imagine what happens under water, under the sea, what images and shapes there are. These are my subjects. He was predominantly doing all these paintings with oil and water colour, but later he shifted to acrylic because he was getting allergic to turpentine or linseed oil.

In the morning, after breakfast and a little tea, he would go and paint every day. He would show his paintings to me and ask how they are. I used to show him my works. Our journey was like a grandfather and grandson. I used to call him Dada, not like a brother, but like a grandfather.

He was an amazing person and was very popular among artists, and galleries. He was very much sought after. He always tried to help young artists and students in whatever they were trying to do.

Bimal-da was keen to get his grandson admitted into Mayo College in Ajmer, Rajasthan. So the family went there, got him admitted and were on their way back when their car crashed. Bimal-da, his wife, daughter and son-in-law, all died in that tragic incident on the Jaipur highway near Dharuhera, in the summer of 1996. That was the end of his journey in the world of art.

Q. Has Das Gupta’s art got due recognition?

Somehow, his art was not promoted properly; it was a bit scattered. But I believe that it will be recognised one day; it is like the sun rising, and everyone can see it. I'm glad about all those people who are putting up Bimal-da’s works from their collections for the exhibition; they have put together a fabulous book as well, with the proper presentation of Bimal-da’s works. Those who had bought his art, had bought it out of love and happiness, and not for investment purposes. I hope that from this exhibition, his art will take on a different dimension in the art world. I'm very optimistic that it will get huge recognition in today's time.

The recognition that he got during his time was very good; it was very nice. But in the last 30 years, the world of contemporary art has seen some radical and dynamic changes. Every aspect of Indian art has touched new heights. But for some reason his works did not come into the mainstream. In the last 30 years, many new galleries and auction houses have come up, there were market crashes, the pandemic. Art is very socio-economic and political in nature. Social and political changes perhaps were factors that didn’t let his art come into the mainstream. This has happened to several artists in the past.

Two abstract works by Bimal Das Gupta

Q. You yourself paint a lot on-site. Why is that?

Because I always want to capture the light. Light plays the most important and integral part in my paintings because light is life. For instance, you think of a gloomy, dusty day, when there is no light, and you feel very depressed. So I try to capture the light in every moment and how it changes, because that creates the colour. The same water will have a different colour because of the light. The second reason is because I always wanted to directly transform nature onto the paper or canvas. That was the fundamental theory of impressionism; they wanted to go out of the studio and capture the light, and the movement of the air.

I have been painting on-site for nearly four decades. I have painted while sitting outdoors in places like Venice, Kerala, Rajasthan, the Himalayas, the Odisha coast and Santiniketan [in West Bengal], or the cherry blossoms in Japan. Even today, I sit in my balcony here during the monsoon, and see the clouds coming down on Marine Lines and I paint that. Because that is how you can transform the essence of that moment onto the canvas. But, of course, I cannot do this when I work on large canvases, about 30 or 40 feet long.

Q. How would you say your art works have evolved over time?

It has been a very spontaneous evolution. Before I went to Delhi in 1990, I was in my native place, in Tamluk, West Bengal, and around Calcutta and Santiniketan, and the coast of Bengal. The colours were very different.

When I first went to Rajasthan in 1990, I sat and painted on-site. There were havelis and palaces, the stone, the light, and wooden dolls. That was when a great transition took place in my art. Earlier, it was completely landscape based; then slowly the human figure came into that landscape, and later, the human figure became the dominant part, while the colours came in. Bengal had very subdued colours, and then there were the vibrant colours of Rajasthan, with their turbans and their bright clothes and jewelleries. From that point onwards my art became very vibrant, like a celebration.

Q. How do you choose your medium, and how does it affect the artwork?

I paint in every medium. My fundamental idea is to transform anything and everything into a piece of art, and it can be in whichever medium. Of course, paper is the most suitable for watercolour, which is very, very sensitive. It is the most difficult medium in painting in the world. Oil has its own character, heaviness, and a certain kind of power. You can explore it in a big way, you can rectify it, you can do large pieces of work that you cannot do in watercolours, which have to be of limited sizes. I also do sculptures and installations. I do mixed media, with, say, different kinds of paper, to create texture. Because the dimension that texture gives is wonderful.

Medium plays an important role when you choose a subject, especially if you want to do a landscape. Smaller formats are sensitive, and have to be watercolour. Very complex subjects, large compositions have to be oil. I also use mixed media and pigments to create different textures. Then, I make sculptures of metal, bronze and brass; they are huge. At an upcoming biennale in Kolkata, they are putting up one of my sculptures which weighs 7 tonnes, and had to be carried by two cranes.

As a child I started my life in art by doing clay modelling, by looking at artisans making Durga idols. That was my journey into the world of art. And now I am doing sculptures again.