The Society Painting

I am Gautam Pal. I was born in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, India. Since childhood, I have loved writing poetry, painting, and singing. I graduated in Visual Arts from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, in 1990. For a while, I worked as an illustrator in an advertising agency. In 1998, I was compelled to take up a job as a treasurer at a government (B.Ed) college. At that time, the death of my father deeply affected me and left me in a state of depression. I read many books from my office library, especially those on Eastern and Western philosophy, and I tried to seek answers to many of life's questions in that library. Some unethical social incidents deeply impacted me at that time, and from then on, I began creating some protest paintings. All my early paintings developed in the style of protest art. I named my mission 'The Dark Quest.' The primary purpose of these artworks was to highlight the darker sides of society. Gradually, life changed, and so did my understanding of it. I learned that light and darkness both play equally important roles in life. I started to see the world from a new perspective. For me, painting is like a poem of an unknown dream. Just as dreams are not premeditated, my paintings too are not preplanned. I believe this is a natural phenomenon. An artist translates the flow of time in their earthly life into lines and colors through their own perspective, spontaneously. But I have come to understand that our lives are uncertain; I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Therefore, abstract painting always carries the signature of uncertainty. I have asked myself many times, in different ways, why I should paint abstractly. Later, I realized that abstract painting, done with honesty, is the only way to express the original life force of an artist or to attempt to capture the vastness of the infinite. Without betraying my conscience, I have tried to find the truth of my uncertain life in my paintings. To me, abstract painting is a translation of the uncertainty of the present life. For me, painting is an uncertain event that occurs suddenly. I believe that anything painted with premeditation is a form of formal work. After this, I named my next painting mission 'Life on Earth.' In my abstract paintings, the daily struggles of people to survive, the immoral policies of those blinded by superstition, the selfishness of some, and the hatred of people over living religions have found a place.