Kalidas Karmakar and his canvas: Capturing obscure times

Through his works, Kalidas records history and incidents in our urban and rural lives.

Kalidas Karmakar's solo exhibition, titled “Alluvial Diary,” is now on at Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts. The veteran artist's latest images reflect anger, frustration, suffering, death, destruction and his subjects encapsulate the misery of common Bangladeshis in times of war, floods, cyclones, famines, political and economical turmoil.
While ordinary Bangladeshis were gripped by insecurity and a politically unstable situation in the last seven years, for artistes it was a dark period. Throughout these agonising times, Kalidas maintained an "alluvial" diary where he articulated the miseries.
As a painter, Kalidas feels that he has a responsibility to his country. He records time, history and incidents in our urban and rural lives. His language is distinctive as he uses the canvas to protest cruelty, inequality, political chaos, poverty and violence in our daily lives.
At the exhibition, Kalidas' works are accompanied with musical notes. During his recent visit to the US, he came across an elderly woman who lived very close to where he was staying. The woman used to play the piano till midnight and the music inspired him to work in digital lithography.
In his long and chequered life, Kalidas has gradually transformed himself into an abstract expressionist. His works are form and colour-oriented. He prefers bold brush strokes, bright colours, light and shade. In his use of materials and tints, he frequently goes for the bold and natural. Kalidas is increasingly imparting messages through his paintings and he is becoming more innovative, using space to increasingly interact with faces, figures and objects on his canvas. These works simultaneously display technical excellence and a mature intellect.
The exhibition ends on February 28.