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In
the 1960s,
Benode Bihari Mukherjee
lost his eye sight and started
making collages which he could make by the feel of his fingers. These
are some of the old collages that still survive. But after him no
artists of repute took up collages till BR Panesar came to the field.
Panesar's collages have a special quality. when seen from a close
distance, the collages does not make any sense, but when seen from a
distance a clear, realistic, almost photographic scene emerges.
Panesar's collages are very rare these days and they are not easily
available in the market. Below is a collage made by his disciple
Devajyoti Ray
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This collage made
by Ray was done in exact style of Panesar. When seen without
enlarging, or when seen from a great distance, the image appears to
be a scene of a tin-roof hut near the bank of a water body. But when
enlarged, or seen closely, one gets lost in a spate of loosely torn
paper pieces. |
Another of Panesar's most well known disciples,
Shakila
works only in the
medium of collages. But Shakila's works are not done in the same style.
They
are much simpler and more figurative.
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Shakila's collage |
Panesar today runs a
art-school
in Kolkata where many new aspirants are taught
the art of collage making.
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Bal Raj Panesar, had always been the odd man in the Bengal Art
Circle. Born in the year 1927 in Punjab, Panesar came to
Kolkata to study Statistics at the Indian Statistical
Institute, and then work as an officer for the Ministry of
Planning. He painted during his free time without any formal
training in art and yet his art was of such standard that he
enthralled the art lovers with ease. He was made a member of
the Society of Contemporary Artists
in 1974, the group to which other
important artists of the time belonged including
Sunil Das,
Bikash
Bhattacharya,
Ganesh paine
, etc. .
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Yet critics had never been favourable to Panesar. Like
Manu Parekh, his works too remained
undervalued and it is only in recent past that he has come to
the limelight when some art lovers and disciples like
Devajyoti Ray and
Shakila
spread his name among the wider audience.
Panesar is one of those few painters who have never painted for
commercial gains and had maintained the habit of gifting his works free
to anybody who might admire him. He lives humbly in a small YMCA room in
Kolkata, donating a large part of his income from sale proceeds to
charitable institutions. He had virtually helped artist Shakila out of
penury to stand as an independent artist.
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Many such abstract
works have been made by Panesar. Though abstract, they are much easier
to discern than conventional abstract. |
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Medium and
techniques of Work
Panesar is truly a modernist
abstractionist among the
artists of Kolkata, having worked in such varied media as is
totally outside the realm of
art-school
styles. He had come to the
forefront by his
collages
, but later he
adopted a similar style in oil. He had also done works in etching and
ink on paper.
Major
Themes
Panesar’s
works are abstract. Yet they are not so abstract so as to lend to a
viewers independent interpretation. The mood and the scene is preset by
the artist and yet nothing remains defined. A balance is maintained in
the abstract elements so as to help the viewer in guided imagination.
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