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the-south-asian Life & Times July-Sep 2011 |
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Sports Tennis Feature Indian
Military Lt Gen R S Sujlana - A Conversation
Royals in
Uniform Art
Adventure 60
Years of Indian
Travel
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Dinkar Kowshik – A Life Truly Lived 1918 – 2011 By Bhaiya da
(Santiniketan) A
sensitive master painter, a prolific writer, and a perceptive teacher,
Dinkar Kowshik, passed on in February this year in Santiniketan – a place he
was closely attached to – a place where his creativity was nurtured as a
student, and where, he in turn, nurtured the talent of many painters in the
past four decades that he lived there. He brought a fresh and a positive
stimulus to Kala Bhavan in Santiniketan when he took over as the principal
of one of the most celebrated art campuses in the world.
This was the time when both Binode da and Kinker da came into their elements
again - and he got some of the great minds in art to move to Santiniketan.
Somenath Hore, K.G Subramanyan, Sharbari Rai Choudhuri and others came to
the institution to give it a new life and the original creative edge.
A quiet and an unassuming person, Dinkar exuded calmness and happiness – so
visible on his canvasses too.
According
to Prof. R. Sivakumar, Professor of History of Art at Santiniketan, “His art
is best described as spontaneous; he infuses lyrical grace into whatever he
paints, be it everyday objects or quasi-geometric abstractions. His figures
are shaped by geometry, but by a geometry that gives them an effortless
simplicity and makes them light rather than rigid. His geometric
abstractions are constructed not like stern architectonic edifices but like
lace woven to geometrical perfection. His paintings reveal an awareness of
the trajectories of modern art but he seems to have willfully chosen not to
burden them with his knowledge; chosen to soothe the senses of his viewers
rather than challenge their wits and to add a little delight to their life
than to make them confront the harsher side of life.” Something similar can
also be said about his writings on art. “His books are not dense scholarly
tomes but texts written with the ease and flow of civilised conversation,
and make history accessible. His ‘Age and Image' is still a good and short
introduction to the long and complex tradition of Indian art. His other
books mostly on Santiniketan, its art and its personalities combine history
with anecdotes and personal impressions usefully. As an author he clearly
wanted to reach out to the layman and not limit himself to the
professional.”
Dinkar was an aspiring student at Santiniketan
during the golden era of Kala Bhavan.
“Nandalal Bose was at the height of his
powers. Ramkinkar and Benode Behari were beginning to peak as artists of
definitive individuality. Santiniketan was then the most happening place on
the Indian art scene. Sankho Chowdhury, Jaya Appaswamy, Deviprasad Gupta,
Rudrappa Hanji, Satyajit Ray, Prithwish Neogy, and Dinkar Kowshik were
contemporaries. His passing on is in a way also the end of a golden era of
art.
Bhaiya Da, of Santiniketan, traces the journey of
Dinkar Kowshik from Dharwar, in Maharashtra, to Santiniketan in
Read the entire article in the print copy
of
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