'The Monsoon Magic' at Chitrakoot art gallery in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Kolkata’s oldest private modern and contemporary art gallery, Chitrakoot, has mounted a show titled, The Monsoon Magic. The show is staged during monsoon for people to enjoy art and buy paintings at a heavy discount. Featuring in the show are paintings of all price ranges, mediums, sizes, styles and periods.

"The main criterion is that the painting must look beautiful and inspiring like the season. So, there is the ‘Dandia’ dance of Subroto Gangopadhyay, female figures by Subroto Das and Gouranga Basai, the bright watercolours of Manoj Mitra and Chanchal Mukherjee, Bengal School landscapes of early artists and tempera and canvas works of contemporary artists," Dr Prakash Kejariwal, Chitrakoot’s director, told ET.

In the show is also an exquisite portrait of Gopal Ghose by Nandalal Bose. At the same time, on tap are paintings by Laxma Goud, Bratin Khan, Arup Das and Shyamal Datta Ray. The show will continue for a month with ever-changing artists from July 15. Paintings by Prakash Karmakar, Ganesh Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury and Paresh Maity were sold out on the first day at prices ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 5 lakh. The average price between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000.

"We will add works by famed artists like Jamini Roy, Hemen Mazumdar, Nikhil Biswas, Gopal Ghose and Jogen Chowdhury as the show progresses. All paintings are from the Chitrakoot collection. The Summer and Monsoon shows are mounted almost every year," Kejariwal added.