Gobardhan Ash Retrospective

Atanu Basu

Princeps Auction House, Mumbai, organised an exhibition of the famous artist, Gobardhan Ash, at ‘Kolkata Centre for Creativity” (KCC). In this, a rather large display of his hundred-odd original exhibits undoubtedly turned out to be a superb exhibition for the art-lovers of the city of Kolkata. The exhibits consisted of sketches, a good number of self-portraits and of course, the most famous and iconic called “Avatar Series”. There were a number of landscapes, a “Children Series” which is definitely worth mentioning. Mr Indrajit Chatterjee, the curator, Princeps, presented a potpourri of Shri Ash’s collection of the period spanning nearly 4 decades of his artistic career, i.e., from 1929 through 1969.

On the day of inauguration, an interesting panel discussion entitled “Art Patronage and Collecting in Bengal”, where the panelists were Ina Puri, along with Richa Agarwal, the current Chairperson of KCC, Brijeswari Govil, the VP of Princeps Auction House and Gallery, engaged and mesmerised the audience through their learned deliberations. A book on Gobardhan Ash, authored by the famous actress, Ms Riya Sen was published on the day.

 Rendering a vast array of artists’ own faces in various media is mind-boggling. One would hardly find that to happen in the Indian scenario, and would possibly be unable to peg a second one in line who rendered such a huge number of self-portraits in almost every medium one can conceive of. His prowess in cross-hatching technique is beyond any shade of doubt. In this context, one may mention the very pertinent remarks by the French lady, researcher on Ash from JNU– ‘after I undertook my research on Ash, I figured out that he was at ease with almost every department of media with surprising skill. His mentor was another famous artist in his own right–AtulBasu’. The book that was published on the inauguration day was rather incomplete; the publisher of the book, Mapiu Publishers, promised that they would republish it by incorporating more pertinent information about Ash and his works.

Four decades back, Ms Ira Sarkar edited a book on Ash entitled “Lokchitrakala,” which was serialised in a popular magazine. It was one of the earliest discussions on Ash. Art-lovers, exhibition-hoppers had a number of opportunities to see and feel the artworks of Ash. Even with a fair degree of exposure and yet possibly a fair number of works that have never been exhibited before. In the year 1950, two groups of artists–The Calcutta Group and Progressive Artists Group–jointly held an exhibition of Ash, where his ‘Avatar Series’ was showcased.

The way Ash experimented with various media surprised the viewers. His artworks were discussed over and over again by various specialists; it is thus pointless to reiterate them in detail. But one must mention that in the initial phase of his artistic career, whatever he had done and their continuation and evolution, when studied under the prism of the experimentation he had undertaken later in his career, one would be able to grasp what a vast contribution he had left behind in the realm of Indian modern art. Thus, one needs to understand his contribution by properly periodising his art career.

He started off with a humble piece, ‘Seaman’, using brush work in 1932, followed by a self-portrait, ‘Face 5’, in pen and ink in 1936, which was followed by another self-portrait in 1957. Then he experimented with lettering, using a blue ink fountain pen, “Sketches with Writings”–these were placed in the middle of two self-portraits on two sides. In 1954, he presented a self-portrait in pastel on paper.

In another aside, he did charcoal (“Fakir’ in 1939), and ‘Old Eden Garden (1940). In the years 1940 and 41, he presented in pen and ink, “Editor Kiran Ray” and in pencil, “Two tigers” respectively. In 1950 he did his famous ‘Kathakali’ in gouache, while in 1954, he did two pieces–one in oil on board, “Miss Jyotsna” and the other was on oil on a wood panel, “Portrait of a Housewife”. In the year 1955, his work entitled “Master Ranjit Singh” was superb. His works, “Soldier’s Boot” (1957, in pen and ink) and “Self Portrait’ (1965, oil) deserve special mention.

He was deeply influenced by impressionism. He may be called a modern impressionist Indian painter. If one looks at his “Child Series”, one would see exactly the same face, same colour, with almost the same expression in every piece, which was displayed in this exhibition, showing that he was doing them for a number of years.

One must thank KCC, Princeps Auction House. Special thanks must be reserved for Ms Richa Agarwal and the curator, Mr Indrajit Chatterjee.

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Vol 58, No. 7, Aug 10 - 16, 2025