Award-winning sculptor Biman Bihari Das has put up selective gems from his six-decade long career. He tells Shrabasti Mallik why he loves to etch Krishna and Buddha on the wood of a jackfruit tree
In one sculpture, the nayika looks at you while relaxing in a poised posture while in another, she is embraced by her man in mithuna. Both these women hold a rose in hands. “That is how I visualise my nayika,” says Biman Bihari Das, a national award-winning sculptor. Another artwork depict a Bharatanatyam danseuse. It is not just the female form that he finds fascinating. In a career which spans over six decades, he has drawn influences from Krishna, Buddha, nature and abstract forms. A recently held retrospective exhibited some of the best and renowned works of the artist. It included his various depictions of the Buddha, his abstract work inspired by nature and few mini models of Krishna and goddess Durga. In all his depiction of Krishna, the lord holds his flute in a horizontal position.
Growing up in the ancient town of Tamluk in West Bengal, he was always interested in art. The place was replete with traditional craftsmen who practised the art of terracotta. The artist, now based in Delhi, recalls, “I was more fascinated when terracotta antiques were dug out by my father. There were flower pots, storage vessels and medals (the language scripted on it was neither Bengali nor Sanskrit or Urdu) and dolls. There were also elephant heads and wheels similar to those of Mohenjo Daro and Harappa.” He was also good at calligraphy and passionate about painting.
He carried his passion when he travelled to Kolkata to join the Art College. He had registered for applied arts and even scored a distinction during his first year. But he strangely found his skills in the modeling and sculpture classes exceeding that of his peers. “I received my fist sculpting lesson from a teacher in Tamluk but I had never dreamt of pursuing it,” he says. It was in his second year that he carved a foot-long sculpture of a man playing a violin which caught the eye of renowned painter Gopal Ghosh. “Gopal sir and other professors of the college literally forced me to shift to modeling and carving. That was perhaps the best decision that I have taken in my life,” remembers the artist and adds, “It was after that, that I made my first wood sculpture, in 1966, under the supervision of artist Chintamani Kar, who was then the Principal of the college. It was made from the wood of the jackfruit tree. Sir had broken 18 mini-models that I had made and encouraged me to begin my work on a bigger bark. The bark was seasoned and it went through a lot of processing after the carving was finished. Bee and paraffin wax was put on top with a brush. It was melted using a kerosene blower, a process that he taught me. He explained that during the process some of the wax will seep into the bark of the wood and therefore the wood will not decay for a long time.”
Success didn’t come easy. There were a lot of difficulties that he had to face during his college days as well. Owing to lack of space, he had to elevate the level of his bed by placing bricks under it. He used the space underneath the bed as a place to make sketches of mini-models that he wanted to make. He says, “I still do not have a studio in Delhi, simply because I do not need one. The apartment that I live in has a lot of open space both in the sides and at the back. I have a small rented studio in Kolkata but that has been under lock and key for a long time. If I get a commission of six or nine feet sculptures, I make a temporary shed. My neighbours are supportive and have no complains even if I work late night. I do not actually need much space even when I am doing commissioned portraits or paintings.”
As a sculptor, he prefers to work with permanent media like bronze, marble/stone and wood. “Even good vitrified terracotta is strong,” he mentions, adding that cement, as a medium, never fascinated him. To further his knowledge about sculpting and the lost wax process, he was given a scholarship by the British Council to study art in England. “It was there that a teacher encouraged me to exploit my imagination and create sculptures from my imagination and not copy from previous works,” he points out.
Then onwards, he has dedicated his career to researching and modernising the traditional Indian art forms which included simplification of forms, use of contemporary symbolism and using abstractionism on Indian motifs. “I have, therefore created works like Krishna, Buddha and other traditionally Indian icons and have transformed them into contemporary forms and motifs,” he says.
