Calcutta has been the birth place, the city of karma, and the muse of many modern Indian artists but Misra’s rendition of the city he made home is unique. By the time this oil was made, Calcutta had abdicated its position as the top city of the subcontinent, and was veering towards the bloody Naxal movement. However, Misra’s Calcutta is a cubist nightscape of all things that make it a throbbing entity—the Hooghly river with a bright moon shining on it, colonial architecture, the dense residential neighbourhoods, and an unparalleled cultural richness.
published references
Singh, Kishore, ed., Indian Abstracts: An Absence of Form (New Delhi: DAG, 2014), p. 257
Hemanta Misra
Calcutta
1964
Oil on canvas
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Hemanta Misra
Calcutta
1964
Oil on canvas
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