Santiniketan Landscape

This is a rare work from Jogen Chowdhury’s repertoire as landscapes, along with still-lifes, have remained secondary in a practice devoted to figuration. A fairly recent work, it is a study of the countryside in what appears to be a nostalgic memory of childhood when much of India outside the metros looked pristine. Or, it could be a contemporary likeness of the sylvan Santiniketan where Chowdhury continues to live. The expressionist strokes of his early works and a spray of dots lend it the artist’s distinct stamp.