Untitled (Diptych)

Bijan Chowdhury was expelled from the Government School of Art, Calcutta, due to leftist activities, and had to finish his studies at the arts college in Dacca. But his empathy for the disenfranchised did not diminish. When it became turbulent in Calcutta in the Sixties and Seventies, Chowdhury responded with works such as this one. Here, he shows human predicament in the face of crises beyond the control of the toiling masses. While the meeker ones peep from behind the cover of safety, a few take the leap of faith like the ropedancer in this work trapezing to the beat of a dhol (drum).