Songs of the Soil

SONGS OF THE SOIL M O D E R N I S T

M E L O D Y

ART OF MANOJ DUTTA

Manasij Majumdar

SONGS OF THE SOIL M O D E R N I S T

M E L O D Y

ART OF MANOJ DUTTA

Manoj Dutta was born in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in 1956.

Despite having no formal art education, he soon came to the fore as a talented artist in the late seventies.

His art stands out for being rooted in native styles, and indeed, his works look inalienably Indian more often than not. However, he isn’t simply recycling ideas from the traditional or the Bengal schools of art. While relying on traditional ideas of art for visual meaning-formation— particularly folk art—Dutta integrates these modes with a distinct modern sensibility, especially in his treatment of contemporary events.

This volume by the renowned art critic Manasij Majumdar takes as its subject Manoj Dutta, by the author’s own admission one of his favourite artists. Majumdar has admired for many years Dutta’s paintings and drawings, which tend to look spontaneously home-grown, yet modernist at the same time. Today, his works have travelled far and wide, admired and collected by art-lovers worldwide, who appreciate in his art a lucid, unalloyed expression of something very much native to the Indian soil. Based on the collections accessible in Kolkata and Delhi, as well as Dutta’s own collection, the author traces here the major trends in the artist’s oeuvre, revealing its unique blend of “Indianness” and personal idiom.

With 262 illustrations and 26 photographs.

In the Schools of World and Nature

37

SONGS OF THE SOIL M O D E R N I S T

M E L O D Y

ART OF MANOJ DUTTA

SONGS OF THE SOIL M O D E R N I S T

M E L O D Y

ART OF MANOJ DUTTA

Manasij Majumdar

First published in India in 2020 by Sanchit Art Publications (a division of Sanchit Art) in association with Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd International Distribution North America ACC Art Books T: +1 800 252 5231 • F: +1 212 989 3205 E: ussales@accartbooks.com • www.accartbooks.com/us/ United Kingdom, Eroupe and Asia John Rule Art Book Distribution 40 Voltaire Road, London SW4 6DH T: +44 020 7498 0115 E: johnrule@johnrule.co.uk • www.johnrule.co.uk Rest of the World Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd 706 Kaivanna, Panchvati, Ellisbridge Ahmedabad 380006 INDIA T: +91 79 40 228 228 • F: +91 79 40 228 201 E: mapin@mapinpub.com • www.mapinpub.com Text © Sanchit Art Illustrations © Copyrights of all the works reproduced in the book rest with the artist or the owner of the works. Copyrights of the photographs rest with the respective photographers.

Copyright ©Sanchit Art Publications 2020 All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

The moral rights of Manasij Majumdar as author of this work are asserted.

ISBN: 978-93-85360-76-3 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-81-926373-4-1 (Sanchit Art Publications) Coordination: Suchithra Nedungadi Copyediting: Ateendriya Gupta / Mapin Editorial Pictures courtesy: Nepal Bhadre Cover design and typeset: Prasun Mazumdar Design Design and production support: Mapin Design Studio Printed at Archana Advertising Pvt. Ltd

Sanchit Art Publications (a division of Sanchit Art) Sanchit Art, 156, DLF South Court, Saket New Delhi-110017, India www.sanchitart.in • info@sanchitart.in

for

Samita

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

8

10

1 In the Schools of World and Nature

12

2 Close Encounters with Modernism

38

3 The Many Faces of Men and Women

56

4 Reality Through the Glass of Art, Subtly

82

5 Beating His Own Path

114

Catalogue of Selected Works

139

Artist Biography

192

FOREWORD

One day in 1965, when I was at Dhakuria Sahid Nagar, a young boy came to our house to meet me. He introduced himself as Manoj Dutta. He was full of eager enthusiasm and exploratory curiosity. He showed me a few photographs of his paintings. I found them well-executed and was surprised to know that he had no formal training in art. I felt that the boy had enough talent to be an artist.

Time has proved that I was not wrong in my expectation. Today, Manoj has established himself as one of the most eminent artists of Bengal and has exhibited his works not only in India but also in various international exhibitions in Japan, South Korea, Holland, USA, Dubai, Dhaka, Italy, China and other places. He has participated in a number of national exhibitions of high repute and has received numerous awards.

It is amazing that Manoj has had no institutional training in fine art. However, he has overcome all obstacles through his indomitable will to pursue a career in the art of painting. He is a hardworking and intelligent person, who finally did become a ‘self-made’ artist. I have nothing but praise for Manoj; he is a role model for any aspiring young person who wants to pursue a career based on their inner compulsion.

As an artist, Manoj is a product of his cultural environment. I must say he has tried to understand the visual images of his own land and culture, and cultivated new and personal imageries of simple objects—people, flowers, flowers in a vase, and many other everyday mundane things we see around us. He executes them skilfully, with artistic grace and a style of his own, in aesthetically charming colours. My favourites are quite a few of his work, all examples of simple, spontaneous and imaginative executions. I am sure art-loving folks who appreciate the works of Manoj will love to read this book.

I will mention once again that Manoj is an artist of great determination—that is what has made him successful.

I am happy that Sanchit Art Gallery has published this book of artworks by Manoj Dutta, written by the eminent art writer and scholar, Shri Manasij Majumdar. I congratulate Manoj and wish him all the best.

Jogen Chowdhury November 25, 2019

8

9

PREFACE

Should personal likes and dislikes prejudice an art critic’s evaluation of an artist’s works? A very senior artist and art-writer has observed that it invariably does. He has spoken disapprovingly of the art critic’s personal preferences while discussing, in general, the practice of art criticism as seen in India.

Manoj Dutta has been one of my favourite artists since the early eighties. And despite my regular appreciative exposure to a wide range of contemporary avant-garde art in India and abroad, I have not stopped liking Manoj Dutta’s paintings and drawings, his pastels and temperas, which look spontaneously home-grown yet modernist all at once.

Let us reframe the question raised above: Can a critic’s critical preferences and personal likes ever be poles apart? To put it more simply, can a critic or connoisseur personally dislike a work of art that they critically judge a masterpiece? T.S. Eliot said, “Poetry communicates before it is understood.” Similarly, the evaluative response to any artwork happens before the viewer—if they are a critic—can explain why they like or dislike it.

The process of evaluation does not happen the other way round.

Such evaluation is primarily personal and may, therefore, vary from individual to individual. Where the critic is concerned, this response is educated and well-informed, backed by an acquired taste and extensive artwatching experience. Nevertheless, the first impression is instinctual and rarely fails to touch an evaluative chord in the individual.

I have written books on artists such as Sakti Burman, Bikash Bhattacharjee and Sunil Das. In each case, my personal impressions of their art, unfolding through phases over the decades since I started watching their works in group or solo shows, were very much positive. But I discovered only later what those positive impressions had meant while writing the books.

There is a special reason why I raise this contentious issue of personal like and dislike as against the supposedly clinically pure critical judgement projected as the ideal stuff of art-writing. When I first came to know Manoj Dutta, he was a struggling painter in his early twenties, yet I was already considerably impressed by those of his works I had seen till then. I didn’t know that he was a school drop-out, nor did I care to know whether he had any academic training in painting. I admired his paintings and drawings. Impressed by his single-minded dedication to art, I was sure that he would be an artist of reputation in due course.

Moreover, I was also impressed by the fact that the simplicity of his art stemmed straight from his innate simplicity. Though he befriended me—at the time an established art critic writing for the Ananda Bazar group publications—I don’t remember having written a single line on him on any occasion. Most probably because I had never reviewed any show that featured his works and he had never held a solo show in Kolkata at that point

of time. Much later, I contributed a short piece for a folder, modestly printed, when he had his first solo show in Delhi. By that time, he had become—to my great happiness—quite well-known in the art circuit of Kolkata and beyond. Gradually, his works travelled far and wide, even abroad. They were admired and collected by art lovers in India and by foreigners who, I suppose, appreciated in his art a lucid unalloyed expression of something very much native to the Indian soil.

Manoj Dutta’s art delights, entertains, intrigues, stimulates and creates visual impact—often without any cerebral mediation. Not that one cannot equally appreciate contemporary art, which is often intricately contrived and always cerebrally engaging. However, I would like to highlight that one doesn’t have to dislike art in its traditional mould to appreciate works embodying values and concepts dismissively reactive to tradition. Manoj Dutta is traditional in the sense that he conceives his imagery primarily in terms of visual meaning formation.

Every work of art is an artefact—either intangible, like a poem; or tangible, like a piece of sculpture. The quality of a work’s artefactuality depends on the quality of the artist’s creative handling of skill, conceptual framework, subject, medium and everything else that go into its making, each according to its specific need.

This is what I have kept in view while writing this book on the art of Manoj Dutta. I have found his simplicity neither contrived nor straightway simple. Moreover, what he cherishes about his art is its Indianness, its being rooted in native traditions, and indeed, his works often look inalienably Indian. That does not mean, of course, he is doing Indian art with recycled values of traditional art. And though what he does is not folk painting, he owes a great deal to the art of local folk traditions.

Unfortunately, I could not cover every aspect of Manoj Dutta’s art. When in the mood, he is a prolific painter, producing works in tempera, pastel and pen-and-ink, displaying a wide range of diversity in idea, execution and stylistic format, most of which are now in mostly unapproachable private collections, scattered all over India and abroad. I have explored only the major trends of his art as evident in his works till date—available in the accessible collections in Kolkata and Delhi, kept in the artist’s possession, or preserved in good photographic images.

The first name in my acknowledgements is Mr Sunil Joshan of Sanchit Art, without whose interest this book wouldn’t have been possible. The other two names are, of course, Manoj Dutta and his wife, Krishna Dutta, for having reposed their faith in my critical sensibility and judgement. Lastly, a special thank you to Ms Sandhya Sen for having done a thorough editorial checking of my text.

Manasij Majumdar

1 In the Schools of World and Nature

Teenage Painter

M

anoj Dutta belongs to the generation

personal idiom. Many of them revitalised figurative

of artists who launched their creative

idiom with fresh formal and expressional content,

career around the late 1970s. The new

which was often rooted in their oblique personal

trends of Bengal art that had emerged in the

response to the realities of their times.

works of the artists of the sixties continued to grow from strength to strength through the seventies

The upcoming artists of the seventies and after

and eighties. Many of the sixties’ artists became

were very close to this tenor of art practice, and

well-known within India and had a major influence

Manoj was no exception. Yet, Manoj stands apart

on the artists of the following decades. While the

from the rest of the major names of his generation

senior artists had no consciously set agenda,

because of certain basic features exclusive to his

they generally avoided two pitfalls noticed in the

art. His unmediated, non-intellectual approach

practice of earlier generations. First, they neither

marks his art—both in concept and practice—with

consciously sought any aggressive modernist

a remarkable simplicity that verges on the naïve.

‘disorientation’ of their art, nor contrived an Indian

This simplicity is neither studied nor derivative.

look for their modernism. Second, they took world

Despite his passionate admiration for folk and tribal

art as their heritage and freely drew upon both

art—of which he has at home a sizeable collection,

indigenous and western resources to forge their

picked up and preserved with love and care—Manoj

In the Schools of World and Nature

13

does not make folk art or recycle any art form of

neighbourhood for the extended family of 16,

folk tradition. His artistic idiom is forged under

headed by Manoj’s father, the sole earning member

the pressure of a true modernist impulse, that of

as an employee of the Indian Railways. Later, the

expressing the artist’s inmost individual identity.

family moved to a modest dwelling in Santoshpur, a little further east of Jadavpur. Manoj’s father

However, the identity in Manoj’s art is not a conscious

built this house on a piece of land received from

stylistic construct; its transparent simplicity seeks

the government under the Refugee Rehabilitation

and finds an expression that comes spontaneously

Scheme. The neighbourhood, then located in the

to his brush. This has been possible because of

midst of unspoilt rural greens, was still inhabited

another important fact about his becoming an

by simple village folks but was fast becoming a part

artist—the second major reason, one might say,

of Calcutta’s eastern-most suburbia.

why, he stands out among his contemporaries on the Bengal art scene. Manoj is not academically

As a little boy, Manoj could breathe free, away from

trained, and this has placed him under the category

the congested city centre. Plenty of open spaces,

of artists called “self-taught, a label that has stuck

ponds and lake-like large waterbodies, trees and

to him as a stigma—rather than as a distinction—to

shrubberies kept him outdoors, leisurely rambling

diverse disadvantages. This chapter will gradually

around most of his waking hours every day. He loved

reveal why Manoj, even though he is a self-taught

to watch rural people from peddlers to potters and

artist, does not exactly fit into the category. His lack

from tramps to tradesmen—go about their work.

of any formal training has earned him the privilege

Manoj enjoyed himself best out of doors exploring

of expressing himself freely, unhindered by any set

life and nature. However, this enjoyment could only

notions of style and technique.

be at the expense of his pursuit of studies, which would require him to stay shut at home or school,

Manoj was born in 1956 in East Pakistan into a large

allowing him a very small pittance of free time.

joint family that owned extensive landed property

Manoj’s parents were increasingly worried that

in Mymensingh, one of the most prosperous and

their school-going son—the eldest in the family—

culturally advanced districts of undivided Bengal.

might drop out of school. They spared no efforts to

After the Partition, despite the mass exodus of

ensure his regular attendance at school, so that he

the Hindu minority, they stayed back a few more

would at least be able to earn his daily bread when

years, as many other land-owning families did,

he grew up.

expecting some income to proceed from the sales of their properties. Ultimately, they were forced

Manoj’s first impulse to draw and paint came from

to leave in 1957, due to the growing threat to both

his fascinating experience of watching the works

life and property.

of village patuas (folk painters) and makers of clay images. Not long after, he began to display his

14

In the big, strange city of Calcutta, they were treated

talent for drawing and sketching, most of which

as refugees. They rented rooms in a tenement

he did during his daily strolls around the local

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

Fig. 1.1 Bird Early Watercolour, 3"x 6", 1971 Fig. 1.2 Tagore Potrait Early Watercolour II, 4"x 6", 1969

Fig. 1.1

Fig. 1.2

In the Schools of World and Nature

15

landscape. But talent for art is a poor excuse for a

that he wanted to be an artist. He had seen the

boy’s neglect of school studies! He couldn’t impress

village patuas make scroll paintings in gorgeous

his parents, received no word of encouragement

primary colours and the clay modellers sculpt in

from the family and chose to be a loner and a rebel

clay brightly painted fascinating images of gods

in his pursuit of art, stubbornly resisting all efforts

and goddesses. And in Manoj’s boyish perception,

of his elders to send him back to school.

they painted or sculpted just for the love of the art, not for a living.

Finally, when Manoj was a big boy of nine, his

16

father, in a last ditch effort, engaged a local tutor

Manoj began to think seriously about art, and

to coach him so that, in due time, he could take

of becoming an artist, only much later, in 1964,

the “School Leaving Examination” as a private

when he met an art-loving gentleman in his

candidate. But after a few days of drudgery at

neighbourhood, who appreciated his talent and

the tutor’s home, Manoj began to dodge tuition

wanted him to visit art exhibitions. One day, this

and would spend the time visiting his favourite

new acquaintance took him to a massive show

haunts with his sketchbook. His tutor ultimately

that was on at the Academy of Fine Arts (AFA).

persuaded his father to accept the fact—even

Incidentally, it was AFA’s “All India Annual” and

though unpleasant—that his son could not fit the

Manoj encountered, for the first time in life, what

format of formal schooling. The tutor advised him

appeared to him a grand panoramic spectacle of

to give his son free rein to do what he liked most—

art. Each gallery unfolded to his innocent eyes an

drawing and painting. Manoj’s father grudgingly

outstanding display of contemporary Indian art in

gave in, or rather, he gave up all hopes and stopped

its wide-ranging diversity of styles and themes.

bothering himself with his eldest son’s education.

His guide, the gentleman who had taken him along

Yet neither his parents nor anybody in the family

enthusiastically explained the stylistic and technical

could envisage a career for him in painting. And

features of the major exhibits. Manoj attentively

they were right too! Because if they did, they would

followed him, whether or not he could take in much

have had to plan for Manoj a course of formal

of what was being said. They finally zeroed in on

training in an art college, for which he was not

a painting that had won the Governor’s Award. It

eligible since he did not have the minimum school

was a gouache by Ganesh Haloi, which embodied,

education to qualify for it.

Manoj was told, the “essence of modernism”.

Manoj now enjoyed a wonderful feeling of release,

That day, Manoj returned home triumphantly, with

and he went on drawing and sketching with fresh

a rich harvest of ideas and an experience of art, and

vigour and excitement. He had, however, neither

what he believed to have grasped of modern art.

care nor concern for what the future had in store;

At home he proudly announced to an unconcerned

what career, what calling he was growing up to

audience that he was now well-versed in modern

attempt. He had no understanding of what being a

art. Only his mother, who was secretly proud of her

painter entailed; nor did he know with any certainty

son’s talent, responded: “What on earth is that?”

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

Fig. 1.3 Potrait Copy Pencil on Paper, 9.5"x 6.7", 1970 Fig. 1.4 Potrait Copy Pencil on Paper, 9.5"x 6.7", 1971 Figs 1.5 and 1.6 Ajanta Copy Tempera on Board, 18"x 15.7", 1971

Fig. 1.3

Fig. 1.4

Fig. 1.5

Fig. 1.6

In the Schools of World and Nature

17

18

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

After a couple of visits to art shows at AFA and

speciosa) in his garden and mounted on a flower

other galleries, Manoj became familiar with the

vase. Manoj scored high in the assessment of his

names of the leading artists of the day and of some

would-be mentor. But for further proof of his talent,

of the old masters. From among them, he picked

during subsequent visits, Manoj had to copy a Da

up a few as his favourites and thought he would

Vinci portrait of Jesus, a landscape by another old

have liked to watch them at work. In fact, he was

master and an Indian miniature painting. Mandal

now gradually coming to understand what it meant

handed to Manoj a list of art materials he would

to be a regular artist. He aspired to become one.

need to start practising. Such things, however,

But he didn’t know what one had to do to become

were beyond the means of a poor boy who had no

a full-fledged painter. He realised he still had to

support from his parents, having fallen from their

learn quite a few things about art and art-making.

grace, who would never encourage his wild goose chase at the cost of his studies. But Manoj didn’t

In his quest for someone who might help him,

lose hope; he continued practising with ordinary

Manoj kept a keen watch on the people in and

pen, pencil and exercise books that he had saved

around his locality to single out anyone who had

from his school days.

the look and body language of an artist. One day, on the platform of Jadavpur Railway station, Manoj

Mandal ran an art school from home, where he

chanced upon a young man who was carrying in his

taught the young boys and girls of the locality.

hand what looked like a large sketchbook. Manoj

Manoj occasionally attended these sessions,

straightaway walked up to him and asked, “Excuse

though he couldn’t afford to pay any tuition fees. It

me sir, are you a painter?” And for sure, the young

soon became clear to him that the art teacher was

man—Ashis Mandal—was a final year student at

more attentive to his paying students and found

Calcutta’s Government College of Art and Craft.

less time for guiding Manoj. Manoj felt discouraged

Mandal took an instant interest in Manoj when

and no longer bothered to attend the classes. But

he learnt that the innocent-looking boy wanted to

he kept going to his mentor and often accompanied

be an artist. He gave the boy his home address,

him on his outdoor sketching and painting trips to

inviting him to have a look at his works.

the countryside. There he keenly watched the artist at work and picked up what he thought to be the

Facing page Top left With BR Paneswar, Ganesh Haloi and Bikash Batterjee Top right Artist with Ganesh Pyne Bottom As Member of the Society of Contemporary Artists, 1983

The next day, Manoj visited Mandal’s house, which

basics of drawing and painting from nature. Often,

also doubled as a studio, to see his works and

he went home and drew from memory the same

watch him paint. Manoj asked for guidance in his

scene that Mandal did outdoors, but he would lend

modest pursuit of art, probably expecting nothing

to it something extra from his imagination. He

more than a few tips on how to paint and draw.

transformed the day scene into what it was likely

Mandal, however, suggested that Manoj sit a test

to look at night.

just to check how good he was at drawing. He set for the boy artist to draw a large, green leaf, freshly

Not that Manoj received from Ashis Mandal any

plucked from a Chalta tree (elephant apple/Dillenia

regular training in matters such as technique or

In the Schools of World and Nature

19

medium. Nevertheless, Manoj maintains that he

understood: an artist had to feel deeply about the

gum or egg-white as binder, in measured dilution

has always considered Mandal his only mentor. A

subject he was going to paint or draw.

with water. Through trials and errors, Manoj learnt

ten-year-old boy wishing to be a painter could not

the right measure of binder dilution and, by regular

have made much headway all by himself, especially

Manoj kept up his art practice with zest and energy,

practice, near-mastered the technique of using

when his passion didn’t get the nod of his parents.

and now he mostly painted nature-scapes in

tempera to the satisfaction of his creative need.

By a stroke of good luck, he met the senior art

pastel, watercolour and mixed-media. He regularly

student in his neighbourhood and he got from him

showed his mentor the works for critical feedback.

By this time, “Manoj’s family was now not just

what he needed most—not only a concrete idea of

Mandal was a student of the Indian Art section at

unsupportive but completely indifferent to his

what makes an artist but also moral support for his

the art college, so he wanted Manoj to pick up a few

budding career in art. His parents’ attitude

choice, made so early in life, of a career in art. Then

tips on the Indian style of painting. Manoj learnt

hardened to what they considered his wilful

there was Mandal’s generous gesture of allowing

bits of the wash technique from him. But he was

defiance of his elders’ idea of a career for him.

Manoj to accompany him during his sketching

most keen on learning how to draw and paint from

They didn’t consider art a useful preoccupation

and painting sessions. What Manoj valued most,

nature as any general art college student. He had

and had absolutely no trust in what they thought

however, was his mentor’s comments on art in

already started doing academic-style watercolours

to be his senseless dabbling in art. One day, in a

general and on any artwork by Manoj.

and studied objects and form directly from nature.

fit of terrible disgust, his mother tore up to pieces

Once, he got hold of a dove and kept it tied in his

a tempera by him, on which he had worked all

Once Manoj did a landscape showing a village

room until he could finish making a pencil and a

through the previous night. This ought not to

pond in high summer, when small waterbodies

watercolour sketch.

have happened in their house, for there was a

dried up, baring the bottom mire. Mandal was very

20

very successful professional commercial artist in

much impressed by the tyro’s confident execution,

Gradually, Manoj came to know some other

the extended family. He was an uncle on Manoj’s

but he asked the artist why he hadn’t captured the

important people, who admired his single-minded

mother’s side, the husband of a sister of his

slushy smell of the dried-up pond. The artist was

pursuit of a creative life in art. They not only

mother. The gentleman, however, displayed little

flabbergasted. How could he get into his picture

appreciated his paintings and drawings but also

interest, until much later, in an untrained talent.

the smell of the pond? Should he rub on it a bit

provided him with diverse practical suggestions to

of the mire? Manoj was, however, excited to hear

further his career. One of them was Sitesh Roy, a

Manoj, still in his teens, did receive indulgence

what his mentor said by way of explaining his

senior artist who painted in tempera, with values

from some senior people of the art world. This

comments and took it as a most precious piece

inherited from both the Bengal School and Jamini

is in a way, a fair recognition of the making of

of advice for himself and as the essence of what

Roy. His art, soaked in the aesthetic of native

an artist in him by knowledgeable people. Sitesh

makes a good painting. He said that an artist, while

tradition, rhymed well with Manoj’s love and taste,

Roy, who had already been a great support for

doing a landscape, should not only focus his gaze

acquired since he was a mere child, for objects

him, introduced him to some of his artist friends

on the visual details but also take in the feel of the

and images fashioned out of inexpensive materials

and admirers. One of them was Dwarikanath

total ambience, which consists not only of what

by the village patuas and potters. It was Roy who

Chattopadhyaya, a grandson of Gaganendranath

“you see but also what you hear, smell and touch”.

inspired him to explore the medium of tempera, in

Tagore, a great name in the history of Modern

Unless the view in the picture evokes this feel of

which Manoj painted all his major works in later

Indian art. Dwarikanath was associated with the

totality, the landscape might look dull and one-

life. He started now to try out the new medium by

Society of Oriental Art (SOA), founded in 1907 by his

dimensional. Manoj, the boy he was at the time,

preparing the paint at home—a mix of dry pigment

granduncle Abanindranath Tagore. During the first

could not grasp its full import but this much he

powder, often procured from Roy, and ordinary

four decades of the last century, it was the leading

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

Top Artist with Guru Bottom left Artist's potrait made by his Guru Bottom right Guru's Work

In the Schools of World and Nature

21

22

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

“Manoj’s family was now not just unsupportive but completely indifferent to his budding career in art. His parents’ attitude hardened to what they considered his wilful defiance of his elders’ idea of a career for him. They didn’t consider art a useful preoccupation and had absolutely no trust in what they thought to be his senseless dabbling in art. One day, in a fit of terrible disgust, his mother tore up to pieces a tempera by him, on which he had worked all through the previous night.

This ought not to have happened in their house, for there was a very successful professional commercial artist in the extended family. He was an uncle on Manoj’s mother’s side, the husband of a sister of his mother. The gentleman, however, displayed little interest, until much later, in an untrained talent."

institution of nationalist art in India. Artists from all

he could not afford to more of them framed, at the

over India practising art in Indian/Bengal School

princely sum of Rs. 20 each.

style aspired to participate in the SOA’s prestigious annual show. However, after 1947, with the decline

This one painting Manoj did for the Society of

in the vogue of Nationalist art, the Society began

Oriental Art’s all India annual show, hung along

to lose its earlier lustre. Nevertheless, it was

with the works by artists far senior to him, was

very much a presence in Calcutta’s art world,

an imaginary hill-scape in mixed media of pastel

since many artists of Santiniketan and the Bengal

and watercolour. The painting stood out in its

School, including some iconic figures, were still

colour scheme. Done entirely in shades of red

alive and active through the fifties and sixties.

of diverse tonal intensity, it attracted not only

Dwarikanath watched with keen interest Manoj’s

critical notice but also engaged the average

steady progress and his growing skill in handling

viewer who knew that red, pure red, in any artist’s

different media—particularly pastel and tempera—

palette was generally to be handled with great

Facing page

as well as his power to draw freely any subject in

caution. The picture received a positive mention

Top left Father, Manindranath Dutta

any medium.

in a review of the show broadcasted from the

Top right Mother, Chitra Dutta

In 1969, Manoj got a break when both Dwarikanath

Manoj was to be a regular participant in the SOA

and Sitesh Roy asked him to send his work for the

annual, and in 1971, he went on to join a group

SOA’s annual show. This was his first opportunity

show with other two artists including Sitesh Roy,

to publicly showcase his artworks and a dream

in the Indumati Auditorium at Jadavpur University

fulfilled most unexpectedly for an artist not yet out

campus, mounted by the university students on

of his teens. Manoj submitted only one painting;

the occasion of Saraswati Puja.

Bottom left Artist, Manoj Dutta Bottom right Wife, Krishna

Calcutta station of All India Radio. From now on,

In the Schools of World and Nature

23

At 15, Manoj had already come to realise the

The seventies were a chequered decade of political

hard facts about art—that making a career in art

violence unleashed by the Naxalites, a breakaway

is very expensive and that art does not sell. Now

group of Marxists who dreamt of a speedy socialist

that he was showcasing his works, participating

revolution, to be brought about by eliminating the

in group shows, he needed money to spend on art

existing bourgeois democratic state and its agents,

materials and on framing his pictures for public

including members of the “revisionist” Communist

display. Moreover, he had to commute by bus

party, whom they had branded as “class enemies”.

or train to visit people and places in and around

This

Calcutta. He managed to get by on whatever gift

checked by what may be called “state terrorism”,

money he received occasionally from his elders,

carried out ruthlessly by the police. There were

especially from his maternal uncles, who were

brutalities galore on either side. Young boys were

well-placed in life.

jailed or killed on mere suspicion, just as young

revolutionary

terrorism

was

counter-

“revolutionaries” butchered suspected spies and In 1970, Manoj readily accepted the offer of

class enemies in a frenzied savagery.

a part-time job at a firm ostensibly named

24

Contour Advertising. It was really just a shop that

Manoj got involved with the Naxalites even before

painted billboards on commission from different

he fully realised what it was all about. The rebel

advertising agencies. Here, Manoj was paid Rs.

activists found a large following among young

40 each month for assisting the sign-painter.

people in the city and its suburbs. Manoj’s local

This was paltry money and the job was boring

friends, his playmates since childhood, had

too, for he was to fill in with paint large letters

become enthusiastic participants in the terrorist

outlined by his senior or cover blank billboards

activities, fascinated by the adventurous nature of

with coats of paint. But the job gave him some

the underground movement and by the promise

confidence and a sense of stability in his uncertain

of a speedy revolutionary solution to all the

career pursuit. He worked here until 1973, when

plaguing problems of hunger, unemployment and

he joined a proper advertising agency, Creative

poverty. Manoj’s father, and his well-wishers in the

Workshop, in Park Street. The gentleman who

neighbourhood, grew very much concerned about

introduced him to the Park Street establishment

this boy of bare 15. To keep him away from the

used to get billboards for his client companies

Naxalites, a neighbour, urged by his father, helped

painted at Manoj’s previous workplace. He took a

Manoj get admission in the Indian Art College,

liking to Manoj and asked him to join the company

where the teen artist met two major Bengal

if he would like to make a career as an artist in

artists, Suhas Roy and Bikash Bhattacharjee. But

an advertising agency. Manoj was employed in the

Manoj had a congenital distaste for any course

new firm to work as a helping hand to a trained

of systematic pursuit. So he couldn’t continue

commercial artist. Here, too, the job was not

for more than a month. With all his friends in

fulltime, but he was paid double the amount he

Naxalite folds, he was willy-nilly drawn to the

earned at the billboard-painter’s.

rebels. Manoj was picked up by the rebel leaders

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

The Times of India, Hudco Art Camp

Art Camp hosted by Max Mueller Bhavan (MMB),

They now took serious interest in Manoj’s future

Calcutta. Here, he came to know a large number

as an artist but were as indifferent to his art as

of young artists from all over India, many of whom

ever. In addition to painting and drawing, Manoj

later acquired country-wide recognition. He also

also fashioned various craft objects out of cheap

met the famed artist Sunil Das, who was the

indigenous materials, such as bamboo sticks,

organiser of the camp on behalf of MMB.

straws and dried empty gourds. These were often trashed during seasonal house cleanings. Once,

Meanwhile, a significant change had taken place

the family members seated a distinguished guest

in the attitude of Manoj’s parents and family elders

on a carpet hurriedly spread on a painting which

to what they had always considered his wasteful

Manoj was doing at the time. Yet gradually, they

obsession with art. It was perhaps because Manoj

began to entertain the idea that Manoj could make

was by now not only doing a job but also selling

a living out of what they had earlier thought an

his paintings, however paltry the sums he earned.

entirely useless pursuit.

In the Schools of World and Nature

27

The Telegraph

28

One important point of reference in matters of

But his trying a different tack didn’t clash with

art in the family was Manoj’s uncle Biren Dey, the

Manoj’s creative engagement with art. Since 1973,

artist in the family. Dey was a fine draughtsman

Manoj had been regularly showing his works at

and a master watercolourist in the traditional

the All India Annual Exhibition hosted by Birla

British academic style. He had made it big as

Academy. In 1975, Ramlal Dhar, his friend since

a commercial artist and held a top executive

the 1973 art fair, convinced Manoj to enrol at

position in a reputed advertising firm. He had a

Calcutta’s Government College of Art and Craft as

poor opinion of Manoj’s art works. When Manoj’s

a casual student and even paid one year’s fees in

mother consulted Dey by the end of 1974, to know

advance out of his own pocket. Manoj was admitted

if her son had a future in art, he advised him to

on condition that he would clear the School Final

train in, and practise, commercial art. Dey offered

Examination and submit the certificate before the

to guide him at his home. For some time, Manoj

final exam at the art college. On his first day at the

spent an hour or so at Dey’s house every morning,

college, he had to choose one of the three courses

taking lessons in lettering and layout.

offered: Fine Art, Indian Art and Commercial

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

The Economic Times

Art. The principal, Satyen Ghosal, checked

sponsored workshop in relief printing was held

the works—drawings, paintings and pastels—

at the college, the renowned print-maker Carol

Manoj had submitted along with his application.

Summers came from the United States to conduct

After the interview, Ghoshal took him to the art

the workshop as the Chief Guide and instructor.

teachers in the teachers’ lounge and said, rather

Manoj participated in the workshop and worked

admiringly—addressing the three young teachers,

with a fairly large linoleum piece, and his print was

Isha Mohammad, Ganesh Haloi and Ashes Mitra—

appreciated by Summers. At the Government Art

that this boy was already a “trained painter” and

College too Manoj couldn’t stand the scholastic

had nothing much to learn as a Fine Art student.

discipline for long. He stopped going to college

Manoj then chose to join the Commercial Art

after some time and eventually stopped attending.

course. After a month’s attendance, however, he lost interest in commercial art and would often

Through all these eventful years, he hadn’t given

stray into the Indian Art classes and loved to watch

up his part time job at the Park Street ad agency,

students working in the Indian style. When a USIS-

though he had absented himself occasionally.

In the Schools of World and Nature

29

Certificate for participating in International Biennale in Pusa, South Korea

30

Songs of the Soil: Art of Manoj Datta

Manasij Majumdar taught English in a college under Calcutta University as a reader, and writes on art and literature in Bengali and English. He has been a regular art critic for The Telegraph, Business Standard, and the Bengali weekly Desh between 1986 and 1999. He is the author of several books, including Dreamers on the Ark, a study of the art of Sakti Burman, Close to the Event on the art of Bikash Bhattacharjee, Art Moves, on the works

by Sunil Das, Imprint of a Soul on prints and paintings of Amitabh Bannerji, among others, and has contributed to

Songs of the Soil: Modernist Melody The Art of Manoj Dutta Manasij Majumdar

196 pages, 262 illustrations and 26 photographs 10.25 x 12.5” (260 x 318 mm), hc-plc ISBN: 978-93-85360-76-3 (Mapin) ISBN: 978-81-926373-4-1 (Sanchit Art) ₹4500 | $75 | £55 Spring 2020 • World rights Published in association with Sanchit Art Gallery, New Delhi

other titles of interest

Modern Indian Painting Jane & Kito de Boer Collection Edited by Rob Dean and Giles Tillotson

Lightning by M.F. Husain Edited by Marguerite Charugundla

Bindu Space and Time in Raza’s Vision Geeti Sen

www.mapinpub.com

www.sanchitart.in

Printed in India

MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART

Paritosh Sen: In Retrospect (Mapin, 2002).

4500 | $75 | £55 ISBN 978-93-85360-76-3

www.mapinpub.com