English romantic poet Shelley famously wrote that “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world". Those who have the vision to see the world independendy and unremittingly can create and claim such. Noted Indian artist Gopal Ghose, as a poet of landscape, was immensely sensuous from his childhood. In his own words, he mentions such nuances. He was a lively soul that spoke to the nature around him. He'd passionately respond to the plea of the reddened glow of a tender bud. His pointed sight and perspective never stopped him from seeing the unseen and know the unknown. Observing his son's passion for art, Gopal Ghose's father inspired him to roam around the realm of art.

There is great diversity in Ghose's drawings which cover diverse aspects of nature: trees, floral motifs, terrain, paddy fields, bamboo grooves and life on the riverside. His sense of experimentation, together with his skill in drawing and colour-ing, produced masterpieces. Small in size, his paintings have a miniature quality, but they point towards the impressionistic. His palette favoured mellow hazy shades broken with patches with sharp colour. At a time when art was dissociating itself from beauty, Gopal Ghose's poetic paintings stood as a reminder of the pleasure and sensory delight that art is capable of evoking.

Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in association with Akar Prakar Gallery of India has organised an exclusive exhibition at Bengal Shilpalaya, Dhanmondi to mark Gopal Ghose's birth centenary. The extensive version of the exhibition has previously been organised in National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi; Mumbai and Kolkata. Eminent artist Mustafa Monwar and renowned cultural personality Ramendu Majumdar inaugurated the 23-day long exhibition on September 26. Apart from the inaugurators, Luva Nahid Choudhury, DG, Bengal Foundation and Reena Lath, CEO of Akar Prakar, spoke at the opening. Bangladeshi art connoisseurs will have the opportunity to view the legend's 103

works from 12pm to 8pm till October 18.

Trained in the style of art known as the neo-Bengal school under the tutelage of oriental masters -Shailendra Nath Dey, Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose and Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury, Ghose was born in Kolkata in 1913. He became a legend in his lifetime for his ingenious handling of the quick and unpredictable medium of watercolour. To him goes the credit of raising its status in Indian art history, from a dabbler's medium to an artist's medium.

With a diploma in painting from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Jaipur, Ghose trained in sculpture at the Government College of Arts in Madras. There he worked under renowned realistic painter and sculptor Devi Prasad Roy Chowdhury. Ghose was one of the founder members of the renowned Calcutta Group (1943). The Indian landscape fascinated him and he travelled extensively within the country on his bicycle. Among his contemporaries, he stood out both as a draughtsman and a skilled watercolourist. Ghose died in 1980.