Untitled

Paintings from this series, one of which hangs in the collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art in New Delhi, have been lauded as Bikash Bhattacharjee's most important works. Often juxtaposing dark subjects with the purity of children's toys, his works convey both a sense of the fragility of life and a loss of innocence. His style seems to capitalize on the idiosyncrasies of photography and cinema, incorporating dramatic cropping and collapsed depth of field. While many of Bhattacharjee's compositional elements quote more modern technological media, his technical skill as a painter is impressive. Bikash's meticulous handling of paint and color finds examples in archetypal painters like Jan Van Eyck, as he imbues his work with a naturalistic perfection that is remarkably beautiful.