Refugee
Nightmare
The Illustrated Weekly of India,
December 3, 1950
(The accompanying illustrations are from the original article)
Refugee Series Manishi Dey
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Down-to-earth realism – that is the keynote in the latest
work of Manishi Dey, who now appears to have reached a turning point
in his creativity.
| He came into contact with Abanindranath Tagore and became
a pupil of the great master. |
During the past 20 years – he is 42 – Manishi has expressed
himself in a wide range of styles. His early days at school at Santiniketan
were too fretful to be preparatory. Conventions cramped him, made
him mutinous. It might have ended in a waste of potential power,
and bitter frustration. But luck favoured the youngster. He came
into contact with Abanindranath Tagore and became a pupil of the
great master.
| Abanindranath was great teacher as well, a very human teacher,
who took infinite pains with his pupils. He did not impose on
them his own ideas and idiom. |
Refugee Series Manishi Dey
|
In India’s art history Abanindranath’s place is unique.
Not only has he been unsurpassed, not only was he the moving spirit
of renaissance in Indian art, but he was great teacher as well,
a very human teacher, who took infinite pains with his pupils. He
did not impose on them his own ideas and idiom. He let them develop
on an individual line. His influence was directed to bring out the
best in them all.
Refugee Series
Manishi Dey
|
That was the beginning of Manishi. Then, having attained technique,
he gave himself awhile to wander-lust, seeing life,seeking his themes
in the book of life.
| Even in those early days he could not be classified as belonging
to this school or that – for orthodoxy was alien to his
art and tradition was his terror. |
He was fascinated by the human form in movement, and many of his early
paintings, those of Santhal dancers, for instance, reveal this pre-occupation.
Even in those early days he could not be classified as belonging to
this school or that – for orthodoxy was alien to his art and
tradition was his terror.
| He is at his best when his art mirrors his restless nature,
which could not concentrate long on a theme. |
He has had no love for the art of “decorative” kind,
yet he has done it remarkably well. He has produced painstaking
work, with finesse. However, he is at his best when his art mirrors
his restless nature, which could not concentrate long on a theme,
and brush work is reduced to the minimum essentials amounting to
a sort of austerity.
| Manishi has been rendering on canvas the spiritual history
of vast masses of people, the uprooted of East Bengal. |
In his new refugee pictures, four of which are reproduced here,
that austerity attains its true depth and power. Symbolism is inherent
in the technique. But the style is only attuned to the theme. It
is the theme that stands out in significance. Manishi has been rendering
on canvas the spiritual history of vast masses of people, the uprooted
of East Bengal.
| Eyeballs do not have to glint or soften – closed eyelids
grow strangely eloquent. |
Refugee Series
Manishi Dey
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He depicts a story of agony too deep for tears, but not agony alone.
There is gamut of passions – the shame of dishonour, resignation,
the prayer for the right to live, the hardening of vengefulness. Eyeballs
do not have to glint or soften – closed eyelids grow strangely
eloquent. In lines and in colour there is complete freedom from sentimentality.
It remains to be seen whether this turning point in Manishi Dey’s
work is real or illusive. Is it a passing phase super imposed by
emotional stress? Or, is it the promise of a new richening to come?
Manishi Dey, one of the most versatile students of Abanindranath
Tagore’s Bengal School, was a born rebel and a bohemian
who drifted away, forever in search of varied and newer visual idioms.
Read 'An Introduction to Artist Manishi
Dey'.
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