He is an artist who has always been fascinated by nature and people around him.
They inspire me to create and to understand life better, says the artist.
Rightly termed as a genuine searcher by none other than Indias celebrated
art critic and connoisseur Kekoo Gandhi, he is also an artist who does the
talking in a designers language, being a faculty member of the design
department of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IITG).
He is Utpal Barua whose latest incorporation in his curriculum vitae is a
doctorate degree a first in the field of design in India. This academician
artist-designer, despite his busy nine-to-five schedule at IITG, finds time to
indulge in creativity transforming his feelings onto canvas with colours.
The relationship of human beings, their feelings, joy and happiness, sadness
and their complex behaviour stimulate me to think and to analyze certain deeper
aspects of life. I take these aspects as a subject matter of my paintings,
says Utpal who was born at Tezpur in 1960. In my works, says the artist,
nature comes across as a symbol of the inner void of human life where flying
butterflies appear as a symbol of hope and expectation, though sadness and
loneliness are often predominant characters in these paintings.
Armed with a masters degree in fine arts from the famed Visva Bharati
University, Kolkata, Utpal has also been closely monitoring the folk culture
and craft practices of Assam in particular and the northeaster region in
general. He is also candid enough when he says, as folk culture is a living
reality in Assam and the region per se, folk forms have entered my art
efforts. He adds, I am particularly fascinated by the quality of abstraction
in our folk art tradition and I always try to exploit these elements of
abstraction in my own canvas.
And its not surprising that the subject he chose for his doctoral thesis had
a touch of folk art and craft traditions of the region. A study on design
elements in craft practices with special reference to textile and basketry of
Northeast India was the topic that made him the countrys first doctorate in
the field of design, IITG being the proud institution to inscribe its name in
the academic history of India by awarding this degree. Dr Deb Kumar
Chakraborty, a former faculty member of the prestigious National Institute of
Design, Ahmedabad and currently associated with the design department of IITG,
was the guide of Utpal.
As an artist he has more than 25 national level and over ten international
level exhibitions to his credit. His works were displayed at Lalit Kala
Akademi, AIFACS and Triveni in New Delhi, Jahangir Art Gallery in Mumbai, Birla
Academy and the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, Solid
Art Gallery in Chandigarh, etc, besides in group exhibitions in countries like
UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, etc.
When this Shantiniketan-trained artist held his first solo exhibition at Lalit
Kala Akademi in the national capital in 1999, he received widespread
appreciation from art lovers and connoisseurs alike as also rave reviews in the
media. An artist worth keeping an eye on, was what leading fortnightly
Outlook wrote, terming him as one of the brightest among the new breed of
Indian painters. Acclaimed award-winning filmmaker and our own Jahnu Barua, who
inaugurated Utpals solo show at Jahangir Art Gallery in Mumbai in June, 2006,
was overwhelmed by his creations a new and fresh pleasing experience for me
and thanked him for making Assam and the Northeast proud.
And rightly the region has more reasons to rejoice as Utpal has been projected
as an Indian master in two recent international art exhibitions of
contemporary artists in Indonesia and Singapore. Organized as part of the
diamond jubilee celebration of Indias independence, the art exhibitions were
held from August through October under the auspices of Indian Artists Network,
an organization of professional and award-winning artists of India, with close
cooperation from the Indian embassies there and the Jawaharlal Nehru Indian
Cultural Centre of Jakarta. Utpal was clubbed alongside greats like late KM
Shenoy, Prof Chandrakant Channe, Dr Isa R Mohammad and Arvind Patel as Indian
masters and they were provided exclusive gallery space in the exhibitions that
showcased around 80 paintings by 50 well-known artists of India.
A not-for-profit organization, Indian Artists Network, which is headed by
award-winning artist Ajit Vahadane, works for exposure of talented Indian
artists showcasing their works to the world audience through various
exhibitions abroad. It also has a plan to set up a studio and art school
besides an old-age home in Mumbai where retired artists can stay and teach art
to the younger generation, besides working with their creations in the studio
at the most reasonable fee affordable for them.
The exhibition in Indonesia opened at the Galeri Cipta II of Taman Ismail
Markuzi in Jakarta on August 27 at a glittering function attended by
distinguished guests, art lovers and connoisseurs. Indian ambassador to
Indonesia Navrekha Sharma inaugurated the exhibition. A number of
advertisements were splashed in Indonesian newspapers and art glossies like
Visual Art and C-Art. And whats heartening is that a work of Utpal was
prominently featured in one of the advertisements. A neatly designed voluminous
catalogue, featuring the artists profiles and works, was also brought out on
the occasion. This catalogue, which can well be termed a collectors item for
its rich and wonderful content, was sent to several art galleries spread across
the world.
The exhibition later moved on to Singapore to be a part of the city-countrys
prestigious event Art Singapore at Suntec where some 80 major galleries from
15 countries around the world took part to showcase their masterpieces.
Prominently covered in the print as well as electronic media in both the
countries, the exhibitions were widely appreciated by the art lovers there. The
art critics and connoisseurs alike were highly impressed by the vibrant art
scene in India while showering lavish praise on the works of different artists.
Ask how does it feels to be in international limelight, Utpal is polite enough
to give a slice of the credit to IITG where he is serving as an assistant
professor of visual communication in the department of design. IITG has given
me a new lease of life. In fact, my new identity has helped me create an
international platform, he says.
In the capacity of an academician, Utpal has presented and published a number
of papers in various national and international conferences. At Dibrugarh
University, he participated in a national conference on laser and its
application where he presented a paper Theory of colour application and its
scientific evaluation and at CCS University, Meerut he spoke on Nature of
colour and modern art at the national conference on laser and spectroscopy. In
September 2004, he had been to Robert Gordon University of Scotland to attend
an international conference on Challenging crafts where he presented the
paper Contemporareity of the folk: Northeast Indian crafts that dealt with
one of his favourites the traditional art and craft of the Northeast.
In his new-found high-tech environment at IITG, Utpal has also been
experimenting with abstraction with computer-aided visualizations and some of
his digital works were displayed at Glasgow during his Scotland sojourn.
However, paint, brush and canvas are still dear to this artist who has won
several awards and scholarships, including the fellowship from the Union
Ministry of Human Resource Development, scholarship from Sheridon College,
Ontario in Canada and the coveted AIFACS Award.
He recalls vividly the series of paintings he created in the late 1980s when
insurgency made deep inroads into society affecting the very social fabric
where the common people were the only sufferers. Tortured people with their
innocent gaze in the gloomy atmosphere... moon transformed into a human bone
are some of the characteristics of these paintings. His latest series Inscapes,
which have already touched the number 60, predominantly exploits geometrical
shapes and bright colours and tries to capture the essence of the variegated
land and culture of the Northeast.
One significant aspect of Utpal Baruas paintings is that he tries to convey a
message through them that of hope. And as the optimist artist thinks, theres
always light at the end of the tunnel.
Mridumoloy
(The Assam Tribune,10.11.2007)
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