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Barun Roy—an Artist of 'Visible Memories

by Samir Dasgupta
WITH the first. ever exhibition of his paintings and drawings held recently vat Calcutta’s prestigious art gallery. Chitra kut. Barun Roy^olns the select band of non-resident Indian artists, including such celebrities as Arun Bose (New York) and Shakti Barman (Paris), who still seem to believe that this strife-torn ctty is indeed the cultural capital of India. Roy. who was an assistant editor of Jugantar in the 1960s and also reviewed art for the paper, has for many years lived and worked in Manila and Hong Kong as a high-profile journalist and is currently an information officer of the Manila based Asian Development Bank. Happily for Calcuttans. these long years of his professional involvement in an exacting field could not diminish what was perhaps Roy's first love, a love that began in his boyhood days in Banaras with his many visits to the studio of Ranada Ukil, a distinguished artist of the time who also headed the University's art department for many years. As an art critic in Calcutta, too. Barun Roy came to know the prominent artists of the city at first hand. His travels abroad in more recent years brought him the further opportunity to acquaint himself with the vast storehouse of world art. Roy's serious date with the easel, which began Just over a couple of years ago. should not therefore come as a total surprise to people who have known him intimately over the years.
Every seif-trained artist faces the obvious limitations imposed by the fact of their not having gone through a rigorous process of schooling, especially in the techniques of capturing the surface reality of visible objects. Although this tends to constrain their ability to manoeuvre movements of the pen or the brush in a more or less preconceived manner, the unschooled artist does enjoy certain advantages not usually given to those who have gone through the mill. Happily. Barun Roy's works show that the artist has made successful and effective use of this precious freedom of unpremeditated self-expression. The process. eclectic as it is. has how-
ever led to varied creations, often unrelated to one another, either In style or mood. But then. Il may be said in defence of the artist —who likes to describe his works as 'visible memories' rather than 'visual impression — that the shapes and forms of things conceived in the world of memory are not likely to be similar or continuous. The canvases thus, quite naturally, fall in separate categories, representing more than one artist, as it were, tn the same creator. It is for Roy himself to decide whether he wants to retain this seemingly divided image of the artist
Speaking of the exhibits mounted by the Chitrakoot Art Gallery, which are done in oil.
acrylic. water colour and pencil. what struck me most was the unifying role of the brilliant. vibrant, and usually con-trastlrjg. colours set in harmonious Juxtaposition. The 'sketches' done in black pencil. are meditative and soothing for the eye. In fact. Trees at Night’ (No. 20. in pencil and charcoal) makes a deeper impact on the viewer than The Buds' done in colour pencil, although the piece titled 'Entranced' (No. 24. showing trees swept by wind) certainly reveals the particular strength of the colour pencil. Other black-and-white pencil 'sketches', notably 'Before the Storm' (No. 14) and "Hidden Valley' (No. 16) are delicate
pieces. 'Fallen Leaf Lake' (No. 27) is another example of the Inherent power# of expression of the common pencil. Roy is no less adept in the handling of water colours, the most telling examples being White Sand Beach. Boracy' (No. 30 A 31). Coconut Grov’ (No. 42) — the conceptualisation of th* subject/image being strikingly fresh, and 'Grass Flowers’ (No. 33). The piece du resistance, however. Is Sall Boats (No 47). a work of uncommon beauty. Roy's several essays In water colour ft acrylic/oil on paper. Interestingly, do not seem to fall in any distinct cat egory in the sense that more often than not .these turn out to be a stylistic combination of the artist's other major formal types. 1 have liked Rhapsody in Yellow' (No. 62) and The Waterfall' (No. 6B) the best in this group. In all these the artist has avoided treating Nature for its own sake. Instead. Nature has been made to ap pear as a variegated backdrop to the artist's 'visible memo rics'. To quote Roy: "In my memory world, colour and composition exist, and reality is not exactly without its semblance. But they exist only as vehicles for an inner quest to seek the truth behind the real ity. the soul behind the form, the feeling behind the tmpres sion. If. in the course of that search, the colours and compositions deepen to assume abstract from and meaning, they do so not from any sleight of the intellect, but out of die force of emotions condensed.