The correct answer is Option 1- A-II, B-III, C-I, D-IV
Triumph of Labour- This is an open-air large-scale sculpture in bronze made by Debi Prasad Roy Chowdhury (1899–1975). It was installed at Marina Beach, Chennai, on the eve of the Republic Day in 1959. It shows four men trying to move a rock, rendering the importance and contribution of human labour in nation building. Unconquerable men are wrestling with nature, doggedly, indeterminately and powerfully. It is an image of labour against the elements of nature, a well-known romantic subject of the nineteenth century. Chowdhury loved to dwell on the strong musculature of his workers, revealing their bones, veins, flesh, etc. He portrayed the extreme physical effort of loosening a massive, immovable rock. Human figures are installed in a way that create a curiosity in us as viewers. It attracts the viewers to see it from all sides. The image of group labour is placed on a high pedestal, thereby, replacing the notion of portraits of kings or British dignitaries.
Santhal Family: This is an open air large-scale sculpture created by Ramkinker Baij in 1937. It is made out of metal armature and cement mixed with pebbles, and placed in the compound of Kala Bhavana, Shantiniketan, India’s first national art school. It shows a scene of a Santhal man, carrying his children in a double basket joined by a pole, and his wife and dog walking alongside. Perhaps, it speaks of the family migrating from one region to another, carrying all their frugal possessions. This must be an everyday scene for the artist living amidst the rural landscape. However, he gives it a monumental status. The sculpture is made in the round, which means that we can see it from all sides. It is placed on a low pedestal, making us feel as if we are part of the same space. The significance of this work is that it is regarded as the first public modernist sculpture in India. We do not need to go to a museum to see it as it is placed outside Kala Bhavana. The material of which it is made of is important. The artist has avoided traditional medium like marble, wood or stone, and has preferred cement, the symbol of modernisation.
Of Walls- It is an etching made from zinc plate and printed on paper made by Anupam Sud in 1982. She had studied printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, in the early 1970s. When she returned to India, she was drawn to its everyday reality. Apart from her deep interest in social problems faced by people, belonging to marginalised communities of the society, she was keen to understand them artistically. Notice how she creates an interesting form of a woman by hollowing out the face. The absence of face gives it a brooding and sad expression. The painting depicts the figure of a lonely woman seated on the pavement before a dilapidated wall. In the foreground, we only get a glimpse of the lower part of a poor man sleeping on the ground, contrasting with the clothed woman, and adds to the sadness of the print.
'Devi' is an etching on paper made by Jyoti Bhatt (1934) in 1970. He studied painting, printmaking and photography, and was inspired by his mentor K. G. Subramanyan. He carved out an art language based on folk traditions and popular practices. He brings together many visual elements into the a composite narrative. His works occupy tenuous balance between space tradition and modernity, where the past as a vibrant repository of forms is translated into dynamics of the contemporary. In this print, pictorial image of Devi is re-cast and re-contextualised with a linear drawing of the frontal face of a woman, folk motifs and patterns. The portrait of Devi is centrally placed as an iconic image. The two-dimensionality of words and motifs around the portrait expresses the Tantric philosophy, evoking the power of self-evolution and self-involution, seeing reality as the intertwining dynamic and static principle of Shakti. |
