Rabin Mondal’s retrospective: Spirit of the times

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) in Haus Khaz Village is hosting a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings by veteran artist Rabin Mondal, titled “Kingdom of Exile: A Rabin Mondal Retrospective”.

The 85-year-old Rabinda came from Kolkata for the inauguration of the exhibition last month.  He has had an illustrious career with humble beginnings. In 1955, after years of uncertainty, a steady government job came Rabinda&’s way. He secured employment in the Railways with a posting in Calcutta. The same year the National Academy of Arts selected two of his paintings for an exhibition of contemporary Indian artists in Calcutta. Rabin Mondal&’s paintings were shown along with the works of N S Bendre, K K Hebbar, Ramkinkar Baij, M F Husain, K C S Paniker and others. With the hesitancy of a self-taught artist, Rabin marked his paintings “Not for Competition”. His paintings were highly commended.  That was the beginning. Since then, he has participated in scores of important exhibitions in India and abroad. Connoisseurs and art lovers took time to appreciate the artist who was representative of his times. According to renowned art critic Santo Dutta: “Rabin&’s total opus is full of reverberations of the socio-political convulsions of the years between the Second World War and the Independence in 1947, and of the following years that saw the cancerous fusion of crime, politics and money-power, and the consequent decay of man&’s moral fibre in all its societal manifestations.”

 In Rabinda&’s own words:  “My work is always charged with social implications: the tragic, the sordid and the incoherent…”. Rabin Mondal&’s paintings always reflect the zeitgeist of the contemporary world. Altogether 109 of his works are exhibited at this show that is well worth a visit. Of these 87 paintings are done in oil colours. The remaining are water colour portraits and black  and white drawing-based compositions. The exhibition is on till 15 February.

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