Look Again: How A Pune Painter Is Asking Viewers To Re-Imagine Women In Different Contexts
Pune-based artist Arpa Mukhopadhyay worked in the IT industry for many years. Mukhopadhyay got into professional painting after her mother passed away and she started painting as a way of grieving.
One of the paintings by Pune-based contemporary artist Arpa Mukhopadhyay has three women dressed in traditional saris, with their heads covered, playing on tablas, tanpura, and flute. What is left to the viewer’s imagination is where the women are located as the blue background gives no clue and makes the musicians appear to be floating in the air. “It is as if they are in eternity. They don’t need to belong to a place or time, Music is eternal and they represent music,” says Mukhopadhyay, who will display the work at her first solo show, Timeless Reimaginations, at PN Gadgil in Pune’s Aundh from March 19-26.
Mukhopadhyay’s art, which blends myth and modernity, is drawn from the dual cultural influences she experienced while growing up – she was born in a small village in West Bengal, with winding streets and strong folk customs, before moving to the “maximum city” of Mumbai. When she began to paint and develop her aesthetics, Mukhopadhyay found that her art was emerging from “traditional Indian aesthetics, inspired by folk art, such as the Kalighat paintings and the Bengal School of Art paintings that I encountered during my stay in Bengal, which I try to seamlessly integrate with the contemporary themes and practices I developed as an adult.”
What stands out among the vivid hues and layers of Mukhopadhyay’s paintings is that the works put women at the centre. A painting shows two traditional women lying on the grass. It’s not grass because it’s not green but the viewer can imagine and re-imagine it as grass. The backdrop is such that you can even think of it as a memory field or, maybe, the women are just lost in reverie. It also makes a viewer wonder why women, unlike men, are almost never seen lying down casually to relax in a public space. “The painting will not tell you. It will make you imagine and re-imagine something that you already know in a different context,” says the artist.
A prominent painting is of a woman, who looks like a mythological figure – except that she is not wearing ornaments. She is flying or floating in the air while other women and children from buildings watch her with wonder. “She could be a representative of the mythological being or it could be your imagination or something that is your aspiration. You want to be a strong woman who is on a higher pedestal. She could be Durga, but she has been reimagined,” says Mukhopadhyay.
Another goddess in the collection is Kamdhenu, who grants abundance and bounty that typically is understood as wealth. Mukhopadhyay’s Kamdhenu is easily identifiable as the cow figure, with wings and golden ornaments, but her wings depict trees and greenery. “Today, the real blessing that we need from a goddess is a good environment and sustainability. Hence, I have portrayed an entire landscape in her wings. So that has been re-imagined in today’s context,” says the artist.
Mukhopadhyay was not always an artist though she has been practicing art for years. She was working in the IT industry for many years and it was around six years ago that she got into professional painting. The turning point came after her mother passed away and Mukhopadhyay started painting as a way of grieving. “I used to paint every day and night. Soon, I thought that since it was giving me so much peace why not take it up as a profession,” she says
Mukhopadhyay has been widely exhibited, from the W Gallery Holiday Auction and Exhibition in the US in December 2020, to the Autumn-Winter 2020 Exhibition, “Hope” by the Open School of Creative Arts and Well Being, North Devon, England, to the 89th All India Exhibition 2024, The Indian Academy of Fine Arts, Amritsar, in 2024. With ‘Timeless Reimaginations’, Mukhopadhyay strikes out as a solo flyer.
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