Santiniketan: Kala Bhavana celebrates 100 years of art with exhibition

Founded by the famous, Rabindranath Tagore, Kala Bhavana in Santiniketan is celebrating its 100 years of pioneering fine arts institution. To mark the historic day, the authorities held an exhibition titled Kala Bhavana: The Legacy of Ingenuity. The incredible cultural programme is amongst several other programmes celebrating the occasion.   

Showcasing works of new artists

Nishant, an assistant professor in History of Arts at Benaras Hindu University explained that the idea to organize the programme was to showcase the pedagogy of Kala Bhavana and the fine arts faculty of the Visva-Bharati University. He also added that Kala Bhavana has produced great artists like Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherjee, and Ramkinkar Baij but sadly the faculty hasn’t come across any extraordinary talent lately. 

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According to reports, the programme was an initiative to showcase works of new artists, who are working on the same ideas and principles and to remind people the ideology of Santiniketan and its purpose, which is to provide open space for creative ideas, but not based on schooling only. 

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 A Nation deprived of music and fine arts, lacks self-expression: Tagore 

Tagore believed that a nation that is deprived of music and other finer arts lacks self-expression. For him, a successful nation must have a strong cultural self-expression to represent its roots. A hundred years ago, Tagore invited artists and scholars from diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities to take up residence at Santiniketan and share their knowledge, to promote arts and culture in India.  

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In 1923, Nandalal Bose became the first principal of Kala Bhavana, passing the legacy to the modernist creators like Benode Behari Mukherjee, Somnath Hore, Ramkinkar Baij, and KG Subramanyan. 

Curator Nishant, an Assistant Professor in History of Arts at Benaras Hindu University reportedly said the idea of showcasing a total of 40 works, including paintings, sculptures, print and ceramic by 20 artists are on display. Out of which, around 13 of them have works falling in four categories – self and memories, migration and population, green allegory, and gender. He also mentioned that most artists are youngsters, having just passed out from the institution. 

According to reports, the eye turning part of the show was Enjamul Islam’s work, the soothing Tempera paintings and artworks in the Wash technique by Gargi Ghost.  

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(With agency inputs)