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Chandra Bhattacharjee

CHANDRIMA BHATTACHARJEE was born in 1963, finished B.F.A from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University Shantiniketan in 1987 and M.F.A. from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Shantiniketan in 1989. Has had a solo show in 1993 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, Calcutta. Has participated in several group shows: 1190 Lalit Kala Akademi National Exhibition, New Delhi, All India Drawings and Graphics exhibition, Gulbarga; 1994 Annual Exhibition Birla Academy of Fine Arts and Culture Calcutta & Young Faces in Contemporary Indian Art, Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta; 1995 Trends in contemporary Indian Art, Part II Art Heritage, Delhi; 1996 Annual Exhibition, Birla Academy of Art and Culture Calcutta, Duet Exhibition Nandan Kala Bhavan Shantiniketan and Duet Exhibition, Gallerie 88, Calcutta; 1997 Annual Exhibition Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Calcutta. She lives and works in Calcutta. STATEMENT My black and white works are technically called drawings; I like to call them monochrome paintings, because they are sufficiently elaborate and complete in themselves to be termed so. The coloured drawings are just elaborate extensions of the same process with perhaps a little more challenge. Completing the whole picture first in black and white and then reworking it in colour is my particular style of painting. Style is a very important aspect of art. It is a language with meaningful integration of form and content. If one works naturally from experiential reality, then one's style is certain to have some relevance. Art, for me, is a deeply felt personal experience. My pictures may be viewed as a kaleidoscopic panorama of the distilled emotions of an individual. Perhaps they do not tell a direct tale about any particular social issue, but then the viewer may feel some sort of bond with the picture in question, for the very fact that somewhere somehow our lives are linked together with a silken chord or basic emotions like love, fear etc. Art is a language of the soul. Perhaps because all mankind is essentially alike at the roots, the folk art from all parts of the world is very similar, because its creators follow the same archetypal imagery, grown from the prehistoric instincts of humanity. In that sense, their art is as true as it is innocent and sincere. And that should be the conviction of every self-respecting artist...Chandrima Bhattacharya, ExC Art Heritage 14, 1987.