Trap

This large work, Trap, comes from the early years of Shyamal Dutta Ray’s career, when he had not yet given up painting in oil due to medical reasons. He grew up during the turbulent decade of 1940s when Calcutta was besieged by socio-political crises due to the Great Bengal Famine and the Partition of India. Again, in late 1960s, when this work was made, it was hit by the violent Naxalite movement. The resultant despondency became a recurring theme of his work, also manifest in this oil, where birds try to escape the traps, into a sky that is a glowing red, indicative of danger.