Suman Sarkar's “Poem of Varendra-2” Opens at BSK
Promising artist Suman Kumar Sarkar's third solo painting exhibition titled “Poem of Varendra-2” was opened on May 4 at the gallery of Bishwo Shahitto Kendro.
Suman, who has fond memories with the Santhals living in the north-western part of Bangladesh, depicted numerous realistic watercolour paintings shedding light on the life and culture of one of the oldest indigenous populations of this part of the world. The artist beautifully depicted the cattle's grazing in the uncultivated and uneven reddened land of Varendra and the yard nearing the kitchen of the Santhals.
For Suman, the yard suggests the saga of the indigenous people, while the clay walls of their huts with the roofs made of straw beckon the simple yet struggling life sketches of them who were originally hunters, gatherers, and agriculture labourers.
Suman portrayed life of the Santhals with the close proximity of nature in most of his paintings. The Santhal society is marked by diverse feasts, festivals, and ritualistic celebrations of life with the changing course of nature. The serpentine beauty of rivers, farmland, ferry ghat, series of resting boats, the idyll of Santhal village and the cattle house are marked by the artistic compositions and transparent colour treatment by the artist. Mingling the mature hues of ultramarine blue with burnt sienna, the artist fantastically depicted the landscape of ferry ghat, silent woods on both sides of a road, resting carts and many more.
The painter also created several portraits of a Santhal mother with her offspring, Krishnokoli and Radha for the exhibit.
Suman dreams of making a museum by collecting the musical instruments and the artistic elements of the Santhal culture with the proceeds of the paintings at the show. The artist's social liability towards the community truly deserves appreciation.
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