Assassinated

Prokash Karmakar was one of the most distinctive artists of late twentieth century Bengal and India. He learned initially from his father Prahlad Karmakar’s atelier, until the latter’s death, and later from Nirode Majumdar. Karmakar’s painting Assassinated re-imagines a scene from the Bible—the moment after crucifixion when a Roman soldier pierces Christ’s ribs to check if he is alive. But in this painting the artist reduces the perpetrator and the victim of violence to their biological essence, which is just an emaciated heap of flesh and bones. The image becomes a metaphor for traumatizing violence— which reached an apogee during the Partition, which was witnessed by Karmakar— when human beings were united by their will to violence and mutual destruction. The undated painting here could belong to any of those moments in history when hatred and fear shatters existing social bonds to unleash the worst excesses of brutality.