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Innovative and unpredictable, Baniprosonno’s work is capable of
They declared that the word ‘progressive’ meant ‘to go forward’ and that was what they intended to do. For them, art was nothing but complete freedom, though inspired from heritage yet felt free in creation. They summarily denounced the influences of all modern Indian artists — Rabindranath Tagore as too self-obsessed, Amrita Sher-Gil as a hybrid, Jamini Roy as too unsophisticated, and all such eminent artists as too sentimental. The group’s professionalism and dedication to their art was first spotted by Mulk Raj Anand, India’s foremost art critic. Anand provided a platform for this new breed of artists. The group’s first exhibition was opened by him in 1948. He indicated that they had much ground to cover and many of them went on to achieve that within a decade of the show. The success story of Husain is well known. After the compelling success of the Progressive Artists’ Group, the stage was set for tremendous transformations in the art scene of India. Indian artists began a quest for their individual styles, bringing forward new talent and ideas. On the scene emerged several artists like Satish Gujral, Tyeb Mehta, Krishen Khanna, Ram Kumar, V. S. Gaitonde, Akbar Padamsee, Jehangir Sabavala and a host of others.
Among them, a great art innovator, Baniprosonno, also appeared in the scene in early 1960s, who, ever since, has been active in the national and international world of art. Born in 1932 in a Bengali family, Baniprosonno travelled all over undivided India with his father, who was in the Army. He subsequently made Shimla his home since 1960. Bengal’s artisan’s environment of creativity and pastoral beauty fascinated him from his very childhood. This surrounding in which he spent his early years had a profound effect on the young boy. At the age of 14, he could produce paintings of outstanding maturity. A few childhood works, which survive clearly show Bani as something of an infant prodigy. A rebellious by nature, everything from the very beginning showed that he had no intention of allowing himself to be confined by the limitation of academic tradition. Very early, he renounced his schooling and immersed himself into the world of art, aesthetics and nature. Largely self-taught, his work was startlingly innovative. He joined a group of young artists and intellectuals, who met regularly. Their ideas were progressive, sometimes revolutionary. He gained an awareness of the new cultural trends and visual ideas. In the 1960, he held his first exhibition. It was, however, the year 1979 which brought a new arena for him. He was invited by art galleries in Holland and Germany. Since then, he has been visiting countries in Europe and America almost every year and has, so far, held more than a 100 one-man shows to his credit. He displayed his works in Kolkata, New Delhi, Mumbai, Kathmandu, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Reykjavik (Iceland) and in many other places on invitations from different art galleries and museums, such as the Commonwealth Institute (London), Kullurhuset (Stockholm), Sonjahenie Art Centre (Norway), Nordjyllands Museum Aalborg (Denmark), Kulturant (Kiel), Reykjavik (Iceland) and many more. Bani’s work and personality completely epitomise an age. His courage and boldness place him among those who have given new directions to artistic experience and made an indelible impression on art’s history. He is one among the group of Indian artists, who pioneered modern Indian art and whose work grew out of the revolutionary innovations and who liberated art from the sentimental academicism of the late 19th century. His art, both obstinate and unpredictable, is capable of so many interpretations. It is true that he took inspiration from the works of others – as did many great artists through the history – but, for him, these sources were merely touchstones from which he could shape his expression. His paintings had been brutal, savage and yet tender; in turn he may be held guilty of crudities of an uninitiated child. As an innovator, he never allowed his hands to be tied by traditional forms and swiftly sought new vistas. His drawings are usually superb. His line illustrations in Oroon Ghosh’s book, Dance of Shiva, (1967) are fascinating examples. His latest illustrations in Rabindranath Tagore’s two plays, Daak Ghar, and Taser Desh, translated into English by poet William Radice released recently are milestones. Indeed, for us, he is the Picasso of India. Bani moved restlessly through the past five decades and proved himself capable of shifting from one austere domain to another realm of bright forms and soothing scenes conforming to the taste for good things of life ardently depicted in sensuous and romantic sonorities of colour and line. He admires the sensuous beauty and grace of women in close proximity to birds, animals and vegetation amid atmospheric swirls and illumination. At times, one finds nothing loud in these compositions, and yet they continue to reign within the limits of the pleasant and predictable design, and emerge so expressively humane. Bani has been a wandering soul and a personality of great internal diversity, pursuing an uncertain life of adventure, thus shaping his experiences into new images that symbolise his whole life of visual creativity. He has surprised his admirers with his queer experiments in ceramic and clay sculptures. For children, he creates a fantastic animal world made out of paper-cuttings and twigs, the art of which he has given many demonstrations to the children in schools in India and abroad. Some of his famous creative workshops are titled as ‘Phantastic Animals’, ‘Lamp and Insects’, ‘Wrap Rocks’, ‘Creative Paper Cutting’, ‘New Objects’, ‘Drawings Marathon’, etc. He also indulges in
nonsense rhymes and short stories. His works of poetry has been
equally an intrinsic part of his life. His residence, the Torrentium
Villa at Shimla, is a great gallery of his works surrounded by nature’s
bounties of birds, flowers and ferns that prosper under the tender
care of his spirited wife, Putul, who all along had been his source of
strength in maintaining his balance of life and creation. He has
always shunned publicity and has tried to cautiously guard his
anonymity, aloofness; but otherwise has been too warm a socialite to
his friends, admirers and art seekers, who quite often visit him from
different part of the globe.
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