Remembering My Father….Asudev | Anutosh Deb

My early days: Memories of my  father goes  back  to my  school  days in early 70’s. One day after I returned from my school like all youngsters I was sitting on the top of the gate pillar of our house at Newfield, watching a football match played there. He was at  that  time  painting “Symphony?  in his makeshift studio in what usually was supposed to be the drawing room of the undivided joint family. His working space kept on changing as I saw him painting sometime sitting in the verandah then in the courtyard, always following the setting sunlight. The canvases at times were quite huge but the studio environment was un-altered. The touch of modernity in the studio format was never to be seen. He had designed his own wooden easel, which  I haven?t seen him use very often.

 

There were two people watching him paint but with two set of vision. One was my grandmother who would sit in the afternoon, on the opposite verandah and stare at the artist at work, sometimes giving him a break with a cup of red tea with lemon. This was the time when they shared lighter moments and also the hard realities. Paintings rolled out with a very slow pace primarily for two reasons space and finance.

 

The other person was my mother, but for whose selfless sacrifice we would not have seen the work of my father. She returned home after her school and would immediately get into the household chores. But in midst of her household works she kept a keen watch on the artist at work. The work would stop for another break the moment the evening newspaper “Jugantar” was  dropped by the paperwalla. Hurriedly,  he  would  read  the  headlines  and  as  much  as  he  could  before  the subscriber would arrive from office. He would complete the newspaper till the last word next day.

As the sunlight reduces he would wind up the days work and have a good wash and take his evening stroll to the road side market place or take stalk of what I have done the whole day at school and make the mosquitoes go out of the window so that we could sit down for study. Those days life had a slow pace. The dinners were early particularly during winters.

 

His friends: My father had a couple of good die hard friends. One such friend was (Late)  Promotho  Sen,  a  merchant  who  resided  at  Calcutta.  He  used  to  visit Guwahati once a year. With him would come a year long supply of exclusive paints, brushes, oils and canvas. At night the stock of art materials would be spread out and  I  remember  my  father  talk  to  my  mother  about  his  plans  to  create  new paintings out of the new stock. All dreams would be transformed to paintings in the coming years.

 

Mr. Barooah?s last visit to India. I too probably was  attracted to the Hasselblad and Rolleiflex during this time. All his friends do possess a painting or a sculpture as a souvenir. There were some comrades like (Late) Aurobindo Ghosh and (Late) Dadhi Mahanta and some more.

 

The quality of brush some imported ones those days were by far better that the ones today.

The ground was prepared by him with some time tested material that he would collect from different merchandise and places. The coating on the canvas retained the magical effect till today. Viewers at the recently concluded ASUDEV Retrospective III organized by Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra were very curious to know about the restoration method that I had applied to maintain the luster and joie de vivre of the paintings even after eight decades. Even the water colour temparas retain the magical effect of freshly done work.

 

The tiniest of dots  in his paintings are seen in “Symphony” 1973 which  is also one of the largest in size in the permanent collection of The Directorate of Cultural Affairs, Government of Assam for  the  State  Art  Gallery  and  also  in  “Flame of flesh” 1950 which is an intense study of woman anatomy.

Asu Dev?s experiments with dots  or “pointillism? dates  way back  to 1930’s. We often come  across  “thinkers? attributing his works to that  of old masters. Even  if he was ever influenced by any of the old masters (we do not know and will not ever know). The possibility is very narrow. The stature of persistent work that he had accomplished over a period spread over five decades live a vital question for a researcher, than jump into quick and casual conclusion. In the late 1920?s very rare publications of old master works that too in colour and few or no movement of art exhibits for viewing in galleries as it is today was accessible. It is therefore not quite proper as many casual thinkers exclaim at times relating the works being enthused or attributed to the 17th or 18th century old masters. However we may accredit his works having skeletal resemblance to the old masters sometime, somewhere.

I however would attribute his technique and arrive at a thinking, that it could be his association with odd assignments as a textile  designer in the late 20’s and early 30’s in different parts of the country in various textile mills, would have infused in him the idea of application of the textile designing technique that we see in his paintings later.

 

Only three or four paintings have a male character from amongst the paintings created by my father.

In certain paintings we could see that he attempted to deviate from the distinctiveness characteristics of his primary theme, but he quickly returned back to his old forte, nature and tribal woman. In the paintings like Life to the lees 1962, Fulfillment 1962, Windows 1962, Lotus pond 1962, Self portrait 1962, Composition 1966, “Eclipse”1974, Composition 1976, Cycles of life 1976, are some paintings were the artist has tried to experiment with a different style. But he quickly returned to his own style of dots.

Asu  Dev?s career  as an  artist could  be split–up  into four major time periods. The formative years: 1930-1940 followed by the period 1940 to1960, 1960 to 1970 and 1970 to 1983.

The major creation of his works falls in two phases. The formative years were he had paintings in various mediums apart from a sizeable collection of exquisite textile designs and folk motifs. During 1960 to 1970 saw his works based typically on Meghalaya at that time undivided Assam. About twenty five to thirty five paintings in oil were  created during this period. In the early 70?s his assignment as a  Textile  Designer  with  the  Government  of  Nagaland  also  turn  out  another important segment of his creation. Isn?t it interesting to notice  that  the  beginning and   the  end   of  Asu  Dev?s career   had   been   a  spell  as  a  Textile   Designer  on assignments at Ahmedabad, Khulna, Jessore, and Calcutta in different textile mills and lastly at Weavers Training Centre Dimapur, Nagaland at different point of time.

My pen would run a never ending story but constrains of space reminds me to stop. However I would like to end my maiden write up on my illustrious father quoting from a letter of Late Jugal Das, Artist written on 17 February 1963

“… we non–technical men? are not concerned whether he has applied “pointillism? or “impressionism” and  whether he  has  followed this  great master or that. But his paintings attract us; they are pleasing and soothing for us and we find in them the sincerity and love of work of the artist. May be they are conventional, sometimes with modern trends, not beyond the comprehension of the lay man. His creations are full of ingredients to elevate the soul from the dry world to a realm, full of joy and purity. They deserve unfolding before a bigger number of people.”

 

 

About the Author: Anutosh Deb graduated in Fine Arts (Applied Art) from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat in 1989. He is presently working as an Art Teacher with Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. He has been associated with the Gauhati Artists’ Guild for about three decades and resides in Guwahati Assam India with his wife Tulirekha who is also a painter and daughter Anurekha.The official website of ASUDEV was initially launched on 30 June 2006 as www.artofasudev.org It is now re-launched as http://www.artofasudev.org.in by Mr. Deb and it contains a detailed research work on the artist.