A century of modern angst has gone by debating: “Is this art or is this bakwas?” And there’s no sign of a conclusive opinion. Meanwhile, like many a smart progressive artist, a well-born but poor painter from Bengal quietly went to the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and came home convinced that his canvas was his own space and not a colonial outpost — nor even a nationalist khet. It was simply his, an area of light where he could express himself in ways that appealed personally. And his work sold and sold (average price over two lakh rupees).Now Books Today has just brought out a lavish coffee table tome on his oeuvre with text by Sankar Majumdar, due to be launched in Delhi at the fag end of March by Art Today, documenting six phases in 66 years. Roy began with the qazi who taught art in his village school at Sagardi in Bangladesh, and went on to art college in Calcutta. The only outlet was the college annual art exhibition, but in 1958, one of Roy’s paintings was printed in the famous Bengali magazine Desh while Roy himself was blacklisted by the college authorities for leading student agitations against defaulting teachers.While cinema and literature were on a roll with Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak and young writers who “daringly demythified Tagore”, the Calcutta art scene, as Roy tells it, was a dull affair in the late 50s-early 60s. Writers gathered for literary addas in College Street while film buffs talked themselves hoarse at the Coffee House on Central Avenue. Left out of the action, Roy went to see movies with Ganesh Pyne or else hung out at the Soda Fountain restaurant at the crossing of Chowringhee and Dharamtolla Street with Lalu Prasad Shaw and Bikash Bhattacharya. With nothing happening artwise, Roy, with unusual Libran decisiveness, helped found the Society of Contemporary Artists. Today it is the only surviving art fraternity in Bengal. In 1964, Roy set sail from Bombay to Marseilles to join the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris along with artists Jogen Choudhury and Dipak Banerjee. Left behind was Roy’s bhalobhashi, classfellow Jharna, whom he was too poor to marry just then.Settled on the famous Parisian Rive Gauche (Left Bank of the Seine), Roy drank in the museums and art galleries. He studied graphics at Heyter’s Atelier 17 and Italian mosaic at the Beaux Arts. But the European masters he lost his heart to were Jacques Louis David (1748-1825), the official artist of the French Revolutionary government and Ingres (1780-1867), David’s pupil, whose “cool clarity of composition” made a huge impact on Roy, as did the Impressionist master of light, landscapist Corot. However, the Paris Biennale was a huge letdown, a celebration of distortion and ugliness. Contrasting Picasso and Expressionists like Klee and Kandinsky (the modern leaders), with Impressionists and Neo-Classicists, Roy put his finger on the issue that still divides artists today. “All those who have made beauty and harmony the supreme objective have given Man joy and happiness”, realised Roy, and resolved: “The sole purpose of art is absolute peace and I will prove it”. While refusing to blindly eulogise Tagore, Roy’s reference was Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The saint said that to understand the market one must leave the market. “I wanted to take reality to another level!” says Roy. The fragility of Nature’s quiet moments: a kingfisher at a pool, a crane flying (Ramakrishna too, had his first transcendental moment when he saw cranes flying), what writer Allen Sealy described as “ecstasy in the lapwing’s gullet” in Everest Hotel — these became Roy’s subjects. “When I paint Nature, I see the Almighty”, says Roy, but in a low-key manner that protects the feeling from being trivialised.Thereafter, Roy’s explorations have included the lush landscapes of Bengal, the wit and braggadocio of city crows (snapped up early by collectors like Dr Karan Singh and now a rarity), bosomy, beautiful Radhas — around 687 at the last count . Recently he did a best-selling series called ‘Mistress of the Moon’ inspired by the founding legend of the Chandelas at Khajuraho. Hazy and delicate, the paintings create such a romantic mood that one almost overlooks Roy’s skill in depicting the dream lovers, Princess Hemavati and the Moon God. “That’s what I mean by taking reality to another level”, smiles Roy, satisfied.
