Exposure to art practised in Rajasthan inspired me to make a shift to the figurative: Paresh Maity

Interview with formidable water-colourists

Paresh Maity, one of India's most formidable water-colourists, has explored the world of sculptures and installations over the past couple of years, using varied materials including metal trunks and motorbike parts to create images inspired by nature and everyday life. Maity's latest exhibition, Sounds of Silence, brings together an assortment of paintings, sculptures, sketches, photographs and films, created over 40 years, which chart his journey as an artist. Maity speaks to Avantika Bhuyan about the significance of this exhibition and the major influences on his art

What makes Sounds of Silence such a landmark exhibition?

This is my 74th solo exhibition and the biggest ever. It includes many installations and sculptures that I exhibited in Australia, Singapore and London recently. I am showing some of these for the first time in India. Some of the installations weigh as much as 2,500 kilograms. The exhibition features works spanning 40 years, including four short films that I shot with very high standard 70mm films used in cinema.

The title is interesting, perhaps even contradictory. How does it extend to the works that you are showing?

Art is inanimate and yet has a life of its own. It has sound and yet is silent. In some of my works such as Mystic Abode, I have used 8,500 bells. It took me over a year to create it. Similarly, I have used 4,500 bells to create the most interesting and expressive part of the human body - the face - in the work Sounds of Silence. These are all functional pieces, which means you can walk into them. You will find sounds there; it's almost like the structure is talking or communicating with you.

I believe your recent works attempt to infuse two-dimensional paintings with 3D expressions. How do you achieve that?

Painting generally happens on a flat surface - paper or canvas. To create multiple dimensions, one needs to create perspective. This comes from cubism, a form that Picasso was a master of. If you see a profile painted from an angle, you will see only one eye. But in some of my paintings, you can see the front, the left and right sides, and more. In one profile, there are many faces. These are faces of life. You can even feel the air and the atmosphere.

Are there new works that you have created especially for this exhibition?

There are quite a few. Take, for instance, the sculpture titled The Force. It is a huge bull made of bronze. I have tried to create energy and movement that is so typical of a bull. There's also a fairly recent work called Fantasy that tries to capture the elegance and beauty of the Bengal tiger, which is unique to India.

In an essay, art critic Rita Datta mentions how as a 10-year-old you would run off to watch patuas make clay idols of goddess Durga before the pujas. And then once the immersion was over, you would haul the disintegrating effigy back to the bank to study the artwork. How much of that childhood spirit of enquiry do you still bring to your art?

Each and every work of mine is deeply rooted in that. Whatever I felt as a child, I still carry it within me - the root, while remaining intact, keeps evolving with time.

Who would you call a major influence on your work?

My art teacher, Ranjit Khanra, took Sunday classes where he would bring books from Kolkata's National Library. These contained reproductions of watercolour landscapes, including some from JMW Turner's [famous English romanticist landscape painter] Venice series. Turner's work left a deep impression on me and really influenced my artistic sensibilities. His work, along with John Constable's, became the subject of my scholarship study later. Then in the 1990s, I shifted to Delhi, from where I would travel to Rajasthan often. Exposure to art practised there not only expanded my palette but also inspired me to make a shift to the figurative. Figures became an integral part of my paintings.

Sounds of Silence can be viewed in Kolkata at the CIMA Gallery till January 16, 2016 and at the Birla Academy of Art & Culture till January 7, 2016