Untitled (King Series)

Bikash Bhattacharjee once said, ‘I was very conscious of other people’s sufferings because of my own…’ The marginalised, therefore, were a common trope in his art, and appeared in various forms in different series. This oil and acrylic work is from a suite of paintings titled King Series that the artist first exhibited in 1994. It featured portraits of imaginary characters who represented the disenfranchised but wore a crown of independence on their heads. They were kings in their own right as they stood up for their class, community and even rights which were under perpetual threat.