Untitled

Shyamal Dutta Ray’s strong mastery over the medium often overshadowed the subject of his work. He had to give up painting in oils due to ill-health, but soared high with other media, as evident in this Untitled work in charcoal and ink. A surrealist work, it evokes the texture of a lithograph, which it is not. Contemporary socio-political ills and man’s relation to nature and society in that context were his leitmotif, borne out by the human presence in this monochromatic landscape featuring a grazing cow. It could allude to humanity’s escape to nature to save itself from ills created by its own actions.