SILLY TIMES

Try to catch the essence of our living among the walking dead. Dead from heart and mind.

THE COLLECTIBLES

The Collectibles, pen and ink on printed card, Artist : Soumen Bhowmick, 2014

What else you want to collect for mere existence in this station hole, called home. Starting with the day we first breathe in, the pursuit of collection starts. Collect kisses, embraces, get that rare bottle of single malt, have the latest gizmos, the shining stones and few more dollars. 

Not happy with that…want more, go for it man grab those fast cars, pluck those juicy lips, smother those fickle beautiful bodies, marry the most gorgeous, give birth to the most happening, wear all those labels, go ahead make my day buddy. The big, the bad, the shining, the loudest and the beautiful, collectibles galore in this world of fickle moments of existence. Have them all.

Put a stamp of ‘I’ and ‘MINE’ in all things you can lay your eyes on. Collecting moments of glory is the best pass-time. Success has to be there or else you die. Failure is a crime, punishable with insult hurled upon the demoralized soul. Collect glory at all cost. Everything is now. The time has come to grab your moment. The light is low and the stage is crowded, so hurry. Push the weak and be mean. Collecting all and the best should be your paramount thought forever.

Finally just dug out your soul and lay it on the dirt and stomp on it hard, really hard…just kill the damn thing!


By : Soumen Bhowmick
October, 2014

BlueAnt Digital Talks to Soumen Bhowmick

There is so much happening in the ‘creative’ fields these days. There are conferences on how creative organizations must come together to form a ‘creative industry’ (wink wink, you know which one I’m talking about). New sites sites come up everyday, some of which show you 20Gifs that are apparently funny and assert your ‘Indian-ness’ at the same time. We now have ‘pop-up shops’, secret networking dinners for 20 people and invite only indie movie screenings. For us at BlueAnt Digital, its getting hard to keep up with it all.

And that’s only when we ‘actually’ get to leave office. Events aside, for all of us, leaving the office-dungeon at an earthly hour has become a daily struggle that would put the Gandalf-Balrog face off to shame.

So, we thought, if we can’t go to the action, lets bring the action to us. Starting last week, we started ‘BlueAnt Digital Talks’, a series of interactions in which we invite people from the creative fields to come and chat us up. The talks have no agenda and nothing is off-topic. The theme is simply to let creative minds engage, interact and caffeinate.

For our first BlueAnt Digital Talk, we invited Artist (and ex-advertising creative) Soumen Bhowmick to come talk to us. Soumen spoke to us about the difference between ‘art’ and ‘communication’, the aggressive one needs to sell media, his journey from being a commercial artist, advertiser, magazine illustrator to a gallery-only-art-for-arts-sake artist. Soumen recently concluded his first solo exhibition at the Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi, called ‘Head Tale’. You can read about it here.

You can see some what he spoke to us about, in the series of ‘creatives’ below.

Head Tale: Effective for now but..

Review : Soumen Bhowmick / Johny ML (Art Critic & Curator, India)

Published on : www.cartanart.com, 01/04/2014

Soumen Bhowmick, in person, represents the quintessential image of an artist; fragile, soft, 
animated while speaking and dignified. Often when such artists exhibit in community galleries 
like Triveni in Delhi, despite their sincere efforts they do not get enough print or visual media space. Friendly folks who walk in would look at the works dispassionately or at times patronizingly. Artists, unlike in the mainstream galleries, here are eager to talk to you, get a comment from you. A word of appreciation makes them happier than a real purchase because they know, even in these post-boom years, words of encouragement matter more than money. Most of these artists find benevolent patrons in due course of time; these patrons support them by buying their works not as investments but as a gesture of appreciation and love. Critics use their words to encourage (sometimes, to discourage) and patrons use their money to do the same (sometimes, to spoil the artists).

Part (F.N.) Souza, part (Francis) Bacon, part (Philip) Guston, part (Ernst) Neiztvestny, 
part (George) Grosz and part (Bengali) folk artists, these works of Soumen Bhowmick 
are the meeting point of various pictorial traditions. In this solo show titled ‘Head Tale’, 
what one sees is a series of human heads done over the last five years and interestingly 
not a single human head resemble any real human head or anything near to it. The artist’s 
attempt is not to capture the very similitude of the human heads that we see milling 
around us today but his intention is to look at the ways in which these heads take shape 
in his own ‘head’. This is a way of perceiving people, not exactly as people but as 
creatures of a magical world. For an artist like Soumen Bhowmick, reality or the real world 
around him is a series of appearances and from a peculiar perspective human beings lose their perceived charm and they become creatures distorted by protrusions, intrusions and organic growths.

How does an artist come to view human beings in this way? Either it should be an outcome of the complete loss of faith in human beings as sublime entities or it should come from a belief that human beings who show beautiful countenances to others hide so many weird things in their minds. When the social structures demand a certain kind of behavioral pattern from people, theirs become a tortured existence as they fail to express their innate desires and cruelties within the controlled environment. That means human societies are perverted zones of permanent repressions. Soumen Bhowmick not only sees other people as creatures living within human forms but also sees himself as one, often as a victim or a saint tortured by the arrows of accusations. This pictorial device has been used by many artists aforementioned as protest, disparage and as active rebellion. In an absolutely changed social context, Soumen can emulate this stylistic device only to express his angst.

In his statement, Soumen says that his works are inspired by the scenes from the streets where faces pile up. He feels like giving them a comic twist and an ironic edge. In their distorted selves they look like clowns in a carnival, a menacing carnival of deception. Here notionally Soumen stands closer to Peter Brueghel who had depicted the human vices both perceived and imagined. However, I feel that Soumen needs to move a little further to articulate his views; an urgent departure from heads and faces is demanded. The danger of getting stuck to this language is palpable, which would eventually blunt his critical paintings and they would turn into decorative design with a signature style.

CARRY ON FOOLS

Trapped, pen and ink on paper, Artist : Soumen Bhowmick

No matter what you do or what your mind make your think, it's always darkness around here.

Fools do exist in my world of mediocrity and sin. They thrive and take a long time to perish.

They enter your world with free will and vanquish your sanity with their foolishness. 

That's their beauty dear.

Art is now a fool's business to run. Business, I do call it in all my true senses, not drunk friends, believe me.

Society is punishing us for our indulgences, for our honest lust for freedom. Freedom to express, freedom to

smell that last breath of life, freedom to make love to art, freedom to delve into our dark and lone-some alleys of existence. Freedom is the least available and chased by so many. Art is fooling around for a long time now. Time to face the music of destiny, the song of the forgotten hero will be played now, again and again. Go, take your side with the devil or the vanquished. Your choice will lead you to the depth of no return. The days of glory is now over, dark clouds of doubts are friends around. So just fool around with the clouds of deceit and few choices. Walk the path of hard pebbled roads, moron listen to your soul. For it never lies on purpose. 

The lights in my studio are now dimmed to escape the glare. The once loved images of art openings are

troubling the senses. The crowd is missing, the voices of holy buyers are few and getting rare to find

by every passing day. Carry on with the salvage of your destiny dear friends. We all are left with the fallen air castles that we once  ruled!

NATIONAL ART POLICY

I am drafting this NATIONAL POLICY ON ART, primarily for the promotion and encouragement to Indian art & artistsby the Government of India (Ministry of Culture). It’s just a compilation ofvarious suggestions to the Ministry of Culture, India.

Under ‘ART’ you have painting, sculpture,printmaking, new media, performing art and photography.

Under ‘ARTISTS’ any Indian individualwho has completed B.F.A., M.F.A, B.V.A., B.A. or minimum a diploma in art fromany recognized institution in India.


The Points for the NATIONAL POLICY ONART :

1.   There should be new art galleries onthe line of Lalit Kala Akademi, in Delhi. All major cities should be covered underthis plan. With a minimum floor area of 10,000 sq ft.

2.   Government should allocate publicspaces for art installation, or exhibition space inside Metro Stations,Airports, Colleges, Hospitals, Schools and Dilli Haats. They can even provideparks like Lodhi Garden or Central Park in Connaught Place for permanent openair art display areas. They can allocate walk-ways in Khan Market or any othersuitable place for weekend art exhibitions. Collect 10% of the sales from theartists.

3.   Raw materials for artists should beeasily available through public distribution system like KENDRIYA BHANDARS andKHADI. Even museums, Lalit Kala Akademi can also be roped in for this. Variouspapers, colours, brushes and other materials should be provided to the artistsat reasonable rate at KENDRIYA BHANDARS and KHADI throughout India. Materialscan be divided in two sections students and professional.

4.   Tax exemptions should be given oninvestment or promoting art or any art related activities. Tax rebate to anyindividual or corporate on a purchase of Rs.10,000/- (minimum). Art promotionand investment should be brought under CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).Buying art should be encouraged by all departments of various ministries fortheir offices. Every corporate should take the responsibility of promoting at least5 art students yearly. Corporate should support various art projects; likemurals, public art projects, installations, paintings and performing art withintheir premises at least once a year.

5.   Art Biennales should be organized byGovt. or on PPP mode, throughout India. Apart from KOCHI MUZRIS which is now apopular international biennale, Govt. should come up with few more biennales inmajor metros. Theme based biennales can also be introduced.

6.   Courses on curatorial practices andart management should be introduced in all art colleges.

7.   Lalit Kala Akademi should be made thenodal agency for verification and authentication of art in India. LKA shouldsell research notes on art by Indian and international artists and scholars onart. DVDs and CDs on various Indian and international artists should beavailable in all art museums and LKA.

8.   Revive FESTIVAL of INDIA and YUVAMAHOTSAV. Involve SAARC countries for celebrating YUVA MAHOTSAV. It should bean annual affair. There should be exchange of artists within the SAARCcountries. FESTIVAL of INDIA should be organized throughout the world or atleastin major centres globally.

9.   There should be SAZ (Special ArtZone) on the line of SEZ ( Special Economic Zone). Government should chalk out areas within a city or in its outskirts for this matter. Mandi House, Hauz Khas village, Khan Market or Connaught Place can be declared 'SAZ's. Art galleries, art fairs, musical performances, open air art shows, installations and open air film shows should be part of this 'SAZ'.

10.  In art colleges there should be a course on 'Classical Indian Art'. Where one can learn Indian miniature painting of all styles. The students will learn theory and the practical nuances of this great treasure of Indian Art.

11.  Art tour packages should be introduced by Ministry of Tourism, for Indian & foreign visitors. Art tours will promote tourism and art at the same time. All hotels in India should work on this idea to attract more tourists and to promote art.

12.  Film festival on art should be a regular happening in all the metros in India. Video art, art documentaries, short art films on artists should be made part of it. All regional Lalit Kala Kendras and NGMA could be the venue for this. Even art colleges in India can be transformed into art film festival venues.

13.  A National Artists Database (NAD) should be developed online by Ministry of Culture for all Indian artists. All graduates from certified art colleges can register themselves in this National Artists Database for a nominal fee. This database will be much bigger and more will include most of the Indian artists, than the present Lalit Kala Akademi artists directory. Which unfortunately contains only those artists who have participated with National Art Exhibition.

14.  Art day or art week should be celebrated in all museums and NGMA. 


Author - Soumen Bhownick, September, 2014
Logo Design - Suvankar Nandi

HOW FAKE ARE YOU

To make and sell fake art is a real skill. I used the word ‘make’ because here you don’t create, just copy or clearly steal the soul of someone else art. Blame whom for this menace in Indian art and globally. I will talk about the Indian scenario here…blame the galleries, the buyers or the artists. You pick your choice. I quietly accept the fact that, fake is the new in-thing, especially in a fake society of ours.

Delhiwallahs are major devotees of fake art. They live by it, they take oath for buying fakes only. Next comes Mumbai and Kolkata. Till the time the thick headed morons in these cities demand for Hussians, Razas,Souzas, Tagores, Gaitondes, Hores, Shergills and many more masters, thebusiness of fake will flourish. Many galleries, art dealers or agents openly sell fakes. Either they are protected by the law or they don’t give a damn about it. Specially the art of Progressive Artist’s Group are in demand. Originals are mostly unaffordable by this flock of buyers. But, still they need that fake art to satisfy their ego.

Bless the poverty of opportunities for Indian artists and young graduates in art colleges. Lack of avenues to earn a decent living, except for some low paid art teacher job in a Govt. or private school. That too mostly offered to female breed of this community. The male ones are left to fend for itself. I explain this statement, the age limit for women candidates for DSSB teacher job is 42 and for male it’s 35.Similarly with KVP teaching jobs the age limit for women is more and for men it’s less. So it’s very natural and instinctive for male artists, to take to painting fakes of Indian or European masters. They are skilled, hunger in their belly and acutely helpless. Young, trained, talented art graduates from Kolkata, Bihar and Indore are mainly involved in this business. They just need some money to sustain. It’s a matter of mere livelihood for most of them. They create fake on a very low budget, not paid much. Just enough for their monthly room rent in Delhi or Mumbai. The middleman or the gallery mint the real deal. This situation of artists in India is duly exploited by the gallerists or art promoters to supply the never ending demand for Indian masters.

The show-off breed in Delhi, who just earned their millions desperately need some ego balm in the form of name tags as far as hanging art in their homes. They love to chat beneath a fake Hussain or Raza during their innumerous parties or social encounters. Why to buy an original, soulful piece of art by a young Indian artist. He or she doesn’t belong to the art map of our land. Rajiv Savara want to have a regulatory body to check fakes. I suggest that Lalit Kala Akademi takes the initiative as it’s the foremost body to promote art in India. Or the Ministry of Culture constitutes a separate body to take care of this matter. The Government should have a National Art Policy and guidelines for Art galleries to follow it by the book while doing business. What action would be taken for selling and buying fake art. Till the time there are no better opportunities for Indian artists, this business of fake will prosper and some day it will overtake the market for original artworks. 

The NRI Diaspora is also to be blamed for pushing the market for fakes. They are chasing big names only in Indian art. They fail to promote young Indian artists. There is a certain limit to original works of any artist. But here the scenario is so grave that, even when a certain work of Hussain, Raza or Tagore is in museum collection, the NRI or a DESI would demand to have it painted as a fake. He simply gets hold of a gallery or some art student to fulfil his demand. I see the rise in fakes after 2005 art market burst. Recession has fuelled the supply of willing artists to do this rascal’s job. Even college students feel no shame to earn some quick pocket money through this devious mode of earning. This shit is going on in many of the well known art colleges in India. 

You protest, shout, blame them or put them behind the bars; the business of fakes will go on. Vast number of artists are jobless, government apathy towards art and artists make the situation grave enough for a relook by our social thinkers. We have to question ourselves, for how long faking art is acceptable. When we can’t contain a crime we legalise it, that seems to be the reality now. 

Seriously, just how fake are we!

By - Soumen Bhowmick,

July, 2014

FORMATIONS, a series on paper by Soumen Bhowmick

BLACK & WHITES by SOUMEN BHOWMICK

My world of B&W drawings and sketches. Done over a period of more than 15 years.

All works on paper.

THE ART OF SOUMEN BHOWMICK

In this slide show I have displayed works done for the series CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD.
I had my first solo art exhibition in 2010 at Lalit Kala Akademi, Delhi, with this series of work. The show was well reviewed and appreciated by art lovers from different parts of the world. Norwegians, Americans, Germans, Koreans, Japanese, Italians and a large number of Indians.
Art Alive Gallery (Sunaina Anand) collected 12 of my works from this series. Fantastic sales, and large number of visitors had made this a successful art exhibition. For more works from this series, please do check the CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD section on my blog.

CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD - Solo Exhibition at Lalit Kala Akademy, Delhi

My first solo art exhibition, CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD held at Lalit Kala Akademi was covered by 'Kala Parikrama' programme on Delhi Doordarshan. The show was telecast in the month of April of 2010.

HEAD TALE coverage with CHAHAL PAHAL, ALL INDIA RADIO, Delhi

Interview by Radio Jockey Nirbhay of AIR, Delhi. It's an engaging interview of my solo show HEAD TALE. The interview revolved around my work and my observation of art in general in India. The exhibition went on from 15th to 25th March 2014 at Triveni Gallery, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. Got huge number of footfalls and fantastic review and coverage in the Indian media.

AQUA AEGIS FETE By Gallery Sree Arts

My work is also part of this international art show organised by Gallery Sree Arts of Gurgaon. 35 contemporary artists from around the globe have worked on a single theme of water and its conservation. The size of the artworks are same and on fabriano paper. For me, the challenge was to create some image that would make the viewer do some mental grinding on the particular theme of water conservation. The theme itself is very serious and a contemporary issue, globally faced by mankind. Hope I have done some creative contribution to answer this global issue.

ART BODIES - A Group Show

It gives me Great Pleasure & Privilege to invite you, 

your family, your friends & your colleagues to our group show

 of drawings, paintings and sculptures

ART BODIES

29 April - 5 May

11am to 7pm Daily 

Gallery 1

Lalit Kala Akademi

Rabindra Bhavan

Copernicus Marg, New Delhi

Metro - Mandi House 

Artists - 

BANOJ MOHANTY

PROMILA ARORA

RATNAKAR SUTAR

SHITAL VERMA

SUNITA LAMBA

SOUMEN BHOWMICK

R.S.V.P.  9810661959

Lalit Kala Gallery exhibition view

From Left to Right, Soumen Bhowmick, Promila Arora, Sunita Lamba, Jagdish Dey and Banoj Mohanty

From Left to Right, Soumen Bhowmick, Shital Verma, Sunita Lamba, Banoj Mohanty, Promila Arora and Ratnakar Sutar

PRESS COVERAGES - HEAD TALE

CARTANART - Art review of HEAD TALE by Johny M.L. The well known art critic from India.

CIRCLES CERCLES - Interview by Kanika Vora.

BLUE ANT STUDIO - Interactive session with the Blue Ant Studio team members.

HEAD TALE - Solo Art Exhibition

I started working on this series of drawings and paintings on paper based on my personal experiences. Street urchins forced to perform acts of jugglery in front of the public just to earn a piece of bread (roti). Even doing terribly difficult and fantastic acts of acrobatics. Small kids with an innocent smile on their face doing the impossible. Farmers committing suicide, with debt to follow up by the helpless family. Migrants with punctured dreams, homeless on the streets of our cities. All unsung souls who die trying to achieve that minimum sanctity of humanness are my inspiration, my 'HEADS'. I am telling their tale of hope, despair, failure, struggle, deceit and tears. All these heads are reflecting the soul of our present society. The contemporary dilemmas of mankind are vividly portrayed here.

'HEAD TALE' stands on an understanding of daily exploration of our soulless journey towards attaining the truth. 'HEAD TALE' tries to visually trace the imperfect frameworks for negotiating the complexity of existence – a symbolic vastness within the greater vastness of this physical world. It's a galactic pile-up of reality – meditating prisms to which someone, somewhere, is still clinging. The elements facilitate engagement at all levels of consciousness, being provocative in nature. 'HEAD TALE' is based on our inner turmoil and its struggle with various elements. Influenced by forces of society, norms of survival, rules of coordinated etiquette, economic pitfalls, political lies, back stabbing idiots, race to success.

One might ask why only head. Well the head including the face is the real mirror of our soul. We read hundreds of faces in our daily life. Still we remember few, sometimes none. The head or face strikes you first and has its own story to tell. 'HEAD TALE' is an assemblage of strange contradictions of contemporary life. Some faces will remind you of the friend you just met on the street or the stranger who just make you laugh with his uncommon acts. Among millions of faces, some are truly memorable, for reasons unknown to us. Just too hard to erase from ones memory. Why we treasure them, is truly mysterious. This unknown connection maybe known as human bonding, so prehistoric yet surviving the troubles of our time. This element of mystery make our life naturally lovable. That slight twist of eyebrows, that cunning smile, the pale look, happy faces hiding everything beneath them, the anger blowing hot faces, old and tampered faces and so many of them. Scratched, curved, chiseled, painted, pampered, cannibalistic, injured, glorified and drowned in pain. Faces unlimited.

These 'heads' are common faces with uncommon stories carved on them. Raw in appearance and bold to the core. The colourful appearance  is deceiving to one's eyes. Painted to hide something mysterious. The material used is least important. The cause becomes supreme, transforming your routine space and time to a new level. Sometimes the heads are meditating, one with the self. They are vulnerable but determined. They are on the path of self exploration to explore the world in a more divine way. The void in them is taking the form of solace. The monk of his soul is questioning the meaning of worldly encounters. Ready to take on pain with very little effort. Finding the Shangri-La within oneself is the endless journey of all humans.

The heads are not to dismantle but to challenge and question our ignorance. They make you confront painful realities and provoke thought. ‘HEAD TALE’ is a shock therapy for the disillusioned times. To tear down the corrupt citadel of fake dreams. These heads let you rediscover the lost moments of your soul. A tribute to honest living and slowly but surely the heads gets under our skin.

Artist Statement -

Soumen Bhowmick

PITARA Catalogue

Left to Right : Suman Roy, Soumen Bhowmick, Debashish Das and Tanoy Roychoudhary

From Left to Right : Soumen Bhowmick, Suman Roy, Tanoy Roychoudhury, Debashish Das and Gangadhar Mahato

From Left to Right : Gangadhar Mahato, Soumen Bhowmick, Debashish Das, Tanoy Roychoudhury and Suman Roy

 

PITARA

PITARA 

A Group Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures

Artists : 

Arpan Chakraborty, Debashish Sarkar, Gangadhar Mahato, 

Manoj Kumar Paswan, Suman Singha Roy, 

Soumen Bhowmick, Tanoy Choudhury.

5th to 11th January, 2014

11am to 7pm daily

Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, 

Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 1.

With Warm Regards,

Soumen Bhowmick

M : +91 9810661959