Benodebehari Mukherjee (1904 -
1980) - Late Works
Centenary
Retrospective Exhibition curated by Gulammohammed
Sheikh & Siva Kumar
New Delhi: December 30th 2006 - February 11th
2007
Acknowledgements
Text - R.Sivakumar
GM & Nilima Sheikh
Identification of Japan trip photos -
Omuka Toshiharu
Tsutomu Mizusawa
Design and formatting of CD -
Pushkar Nagwekar,
Kinjal Vora,
Sukhdev Rathod,
Sanjoy Kumar Malik
Voice -
Indrapramit Roy
In 1949,
Benodebehari left Santiniketan to assume the
position of curator at the Nepal Government
Museum in Kathmandu. He was drawn by the
landscape and people of Nepal and their
colourful life. He recorded these in a series of
drawings and water colours marked by a gaiety
new in his art. The wealth of Nepal’s rich arts
and craft practice made him notice, as never
before, the continuity between the two in
traditional cultures. This led him to rethink
his views on art and art education and inspired
him to carry the linguistic eclecticism evident
in the Hindi Bhavana mural further in his later
work. His stay in Nepal was short but rewarding
and his work during these years assumed, without
losing its painterly astuteness, a lightness of
spirit and execution.On his return from Nepal in
1952, Benodebehari settled down in Musoorie in
the Himalayan foothills. Landscape once again
became his major trope, painting the mountains
and the play of mist he tried to capture the
more transient aspects of nature for the first
time.
After a short stay in Musoorie he moved to Patna
with an assignment to revamp the art school
there. However, his eyesight began to decline
rapidly andafter an unsuccessful surgery he lost
his sight completely in 1957. Blindness did not
diminish his creative urge; directing it into
new areas and drawing upon his inner resources
he began to make drawings and small sculptures,
paper-cuts and prints; even a large mural in
ceramic tiles based upon figural images he made
by folding papers
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Exhibition of Reserve Art
Collection in the temple
precincts of Kathmandu,
water colour on paper,
27.7 x 41.7 cm, 1949 |
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Mussourie, oil on
silk
29.5 X 29.5 cm. mid 50s |
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Akanda, tempera on
silver board,
31 x 25 cm, mid 1940s |
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Sthala Padma,
tempera on Nepali paper,
35 x 29 cm, c. 1947 |
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In the Garden,
tempera on silk,
43.5 x 43.5 cm, 1948 |
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Patna,
tempera on paper,
23 x 31.4 cm, 1956, |
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Man Seated on Chair,
marker on paper, c.1962 |
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Figure on Bufflo,
wax, 1958 |
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Jatra, paper collage,
25 x 19 cm, early 1960s |
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Artist preparing paper
cuts
for the ceramic tile mural |
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Ceramic tile mural,
1.67 x 18.80 meters, 1972 |
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