Assam's pioneering contemporary artist Asu Dev's centenary celebrations

Canvases reflecting simplicity amid painstaking details, evoking curiosity and compelling viewers to stop and ponder were the hallmark of Assam's pioneering contemporary artist Asu Dev whose centenary is being observed this year.

A series of programmes have been chalked out to celebrate the centenary year of the artist who is credited, along with a group of pioneering artists, with initiating the contemporary art movement in Assam and the Northeast.

The highlight of the centenary celebration was the presentation of a scholarship to a student from Assam enrolled as a regular student in any full-time post graduate course in visual arts of any stream, his son and trustee of Asu Dev Art Foundation Anutosh Deb told PTI.

The scholarship will be given every year on December 13, the birthday of the artist.

The trust, in collaboration with the Gauhati Artists' Guild, also held a 15-day Centenary Retrospective of the artist recently and viewers were treated to a visual delight of canvases, preserved for posterity in excellent condition.

''I have tried to preserve my father's works in a scientific and proper manner with my limited resources and the recent display has been appreciated by all with viewers wondering how the artworks, most painted more than 50 to 60 years ago, appeared new and fresh, Deb said.

These paintings are a national treasure and a request has been made to National Gallery of Modern Art and Lalit Kala Akademi to come up with some proposal during the centenary year for continued preservation of these art works, he added.

The manuscript of a biography is ready and efforts are on to get it published as part of the centenary celebrations.

''My father was a simple man and this is reflected in his art along with the subtle nuances of his innate attachment to nature and people as portrayed in his canvases, he said.

Asu Dev was an artist who revelled in solitude with his paintings which speak volume of his robust attitude towards life, unfettered by theories, style or technique of any particular school of art.

A self-taught painter, Asu Dev also had keen interest in the intricacies of weaving and created designs on graphs which perhaps led to his fascination with dots that is now described as 'pointillism' by his admirers.

Asu Dev's paintings have an application of different levels of dots or pixels with none of his dots or strokes having any repetition in either size or form, Gauhati Artists's Guild (GAG) President Aminul Haque pointed out.

He was purely non-scholastic and his contribution to art based on his superior artistic sensibilities helped in shaping a new generation of artists who created a distinct niche in the region's art scenario, GAG Secretary Kishore Kumar Das said.

The artist had his first one-man show in Guwahati 1952 and since then he went on hold nine one-man show and participated in 13 group shows. His paintings are in the collection of several organisations, including several museums, embassies and consulates along with private collections both within the country and abroad.