Unravelling the human mind

Tapas Konar has developed an individual style to study what goes on behind the masks we wear, says Navneet Mendiratta

He calls humankind his muse and he loves to study the duality of faces "" blending fantasy with realism. Tapas Konar is an artist who enjoys delving in stream of consciousness.

"I love studying what goes on behind the mask that we call the face. I want to unravel the mystery that unfolds in the human mind," he says. And therefore, little surprise, you have a canvas that depicts dreamy translucence and drifts from real to surreal.

A thread of his thoughts links to his origins. Konar hails from a small, sleepy village in West Bengal called Parul. He started out learning art from his teacher back in the village, Hari Prasad Medha, who was trained at Shanti Niketan. For him art was something that was inborn and therefore it was only natural that he came to Kolkata and took up art as education.

On a suggestion by noted artist Ganesh Payne, he enrolled himself in the Indian College of Art and completed his BFA in 1980.

There began his journey as an artist where he developed an individual style that mixed contemporary with tradition. For medium, he chose to work on rice paper and used tempera "" a style that won him a National Award in 2002.

But as medium can not bind an artist who loves to experiment, he quickly moved on to watercolours and now prefers to work with acrylic on canvas. To put it in his words, he is in search of appropriate objective co-relatives to express his feeling about the human predicament.

On the professional front, he has had several solos shows all over the world. His first solo was at EMS Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland. Besides solos, he has had group expositions in all Indian metropolitan cities and other major cities from 1986-2001, including All India Annual expositions in the country.

Though based in Kolkata, Konar's works are on display at Chawla Art Gallery as part of an exhibition called "Open Window" that showcases art by Group from Bengal.

The ongoing exhibition reflects the fluid rhythm in his compositions. "I draw a lot of inspiration from music and especially classical music. And all of this gets reflected on the canvas," he says.

And in keeping with the mood, he uses muted ambient colours to create a pictorial space that gives it a feel of fantasy. His people are translucent human figures in motion, indicating post-modern influences.

"Art these days has become very Euro-centric. But for me contemporary would be incomplete if it is not interspersed with tradition. After all there are no barriers in art and it reflects the essence of individualness."