The unfolding

Paresh Maity's latest show captures his evolution as an artist over 40 years

The bookshelf in Paresh Maity's studio in Chittaranjan Park, Delhi, is lined with works that would delight any art history scholar. Banaras by Raghubir Singh shares space with Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs and Elements of Style by Stephen Calloway. The warm October sun casts a golden sheen on several new works, in various stages of completion.

"I love light. It plays a vital role in my work, whatever be the medium," says Maity as he walks into the room. "I work only till sunset in a place where I can get sufficient natural light as it helps me recognise the purity of colours beautifully."

It is this play of light and colour that has been his signature for the last four decades. One can get a glimpse of how Maity's distinctive visual language has evolved over time at an upcoming exhibition, "Beyond Horizons", at Gallery Sumukha, Bengaluru. To showcase the ease with which Maity moves within mediums, the show will, for the very first time, feature drawings, paintings and sculptures created by him between 1976 and 2016.

There is a stark difference between the muted tones and figurative style of Cleaner, a water colour created in 1976, and the warm, vibrant hues of Expression, an oil on board from 1992, which shows Maity's move towards abstraction. "His earlier water colours are typical to what people did after coming out from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata," says Premilla Baid, founder-director, Gallery Sumukha. "However, as you move towards his later works, one can see how his palette changed. Also distinctive are the sizes he works with. Few people can do water colours in those sizes."

It's a rare treat to behold some of his early works, such as Entrance, a 1984 water colour and graphite on paper. A lot of new works are part of the exhibition as well, one of the highlights being a massive bronze sculpture, Flying Fantasy, which depicts a horse with wings and weighs 1,200 kg. In the past two to three years, Maity has created similar functional pieces, some of them so big that you can walk into them. Another one, Fantasy, which will also be shown at this exhibition, is an 11-foot-long sculpture depicting the male and female attributes of the tiger. "Today, art, to some degree, has become interactive. When Fantasy was showcased at Art15 in London Fair last year, there were children climbing on it, sitting on top," says Baid.

About his evolution, Maity says. "As a person, I am what I was 40 years ago. However, with knowledge and exposure, my artistic style has evolved. Every day I try something new." He paints for himself and doesn't go by popular notions and perceptions. "There is a reason that this exhibition is called 'Beyond Horizons' as there is no limit to an artist's evolution. The possibilities are limitless."

Texture plays a big role in his work and is used differently in each medium to explore different dimensions. For instance, in a lot of his mixed media works, one finds the use of rice paper with charcoal to create a unique surface quality. Maity attributes his love for texture to his childhood spent in Tamluk, West Bengal. "I grew up with clay. Tamluk has a huge tradition of creating idols during Durga Puja. I used to come out of school and watch them being made. So, sculpture is in my blood," he says.
'Beyond Horizons' will be on view at Gallery Sumukha, Bengaluru, till November 12