BIKASH BHATTACHARJEE (1940-2006)

The northernmost area of Kolkata exposed Bikash Bhattacharjee to a wide-range of suburban and semi-rural families, many former intellectuals and aristocrats reduced to genteel poverty, pushed out from the center of the city. In the 1980s he created a series of portraits with protagonists from these families. Homage to Santu's Grandmother, is a striking example from this time period. Bhattacharjee, [...] " has always admired woman's immense and unique power to cope with all the crippling constraints of traditional society [...]" (M. Majumder, Close to Events, Works of Bikash Bhattacharjee, New Delhi, 2007, p. 171)
Santu's grandmother, despite her age, is not frail. The white sari she wears, which often signifies widowhood, and thereby weakness in India is negated by the walking stick she firmly grasps and the pedestal she stands upon. Instead of a woman hopelessly caught in a rapidly changing world, she is strong, powerful and dignified. Bhattacharjee's technical skill as a painter is impressive; his style captures on the idiosyncrasies of photography and cinema, incorporating dramatic cropping and collapsed field of depth.