Every art piece has a backstory, which is a corollary of the many sub-stories that an artist compiles to make that artwork. Dhoomimal Gallery in the collaboration with Galleries Splash, is going to present a solo art show called “Made in the Shade- The inimitable art of Ashok Bhowmick”. This will be previewed on 10 June 2022, from 6 pm onwards. The show will be on view till the 9th of July 2022 at Dhoomimal Gallery, G42, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110001. This exhibition has been curated to discover the pinnacles of two different forms of Ashok Bhowmick’s art.
After his solo show in 1974, artist Ashok Bhowmick continued to paint in monochrome shades of black and white until 1996. Soon after, he began to use colors, but he continued adhering to his cardinal style of cross hatching. During this period, his artworks interestingly changed from monochrome to radiant backgrounds. This time, cross-hatching was done with black ink over the colored surface instead of white paper. More interestingly, from 2002 onwards, this change ushered in the use of a bright solid backdrop against the crosshatched figures. It is noteworthy to study how his paintings reveal changes in light and shade in the journey from grey to color. His Art Odyssey reveals that his early days’ sensibilities were largely influenced by his deep-rooted political ideology acquired from Bengal and Bihar.
While in Kanpur during his graduation years and later in 1995-1997 at Azamgarh as an intern during the period of State Emergency and political unrest, he was influenced by the poetry of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh. This was a turning point in the life of Ashok Bhowmick and his paintings.
In a candid conversation, artist Ashok Bhowmick said, “After having spent five decades practising art, I look at it as a journey of my understanding about my perception and meaning of art, its purpose and also its limitations. It has been a long and solitary journey, and in the course of it, I constantly tried to identify the unique strength of painting as a universal art form.” He further added, “Though I’ve never considered myself as an artist of a particular state, region or nation, as while using a particular ‘blue’, I do not claim it to be imbibed from Rajasthan, nor by choosing green, I attribute it to the pastoral Bengal.” He also said: “My paintings are the result of my intention and efforts to liberate them from such references since I want my paintings to be ‘felt’ and not “understood. I wish my paintings would talk to the viewer as an intimate friend and not as a philosopher in the guise of a painter. I have always tried to present my paintings as simple and uncomplicated expressions of myself. No matter how strenuous it is to produce something that should look simple, I happily continue to do it with my expression and technique.”