AMIT BHAR: AN ARTIST WHO FOLLOWED HIS DREAMS TO VARANASI

A self-taught artist, Amit Bhar has achieved success and popularity with his mesmerizing paintings of the sacred city of Varanasi. His canvases are calm yet pulsing with life, as boats emerge from the misty river and sadhus climb the ghats. From the people to the architecture to the nature, each detail in his work is rendered with great accuracy and a dramatic presentation.

In conversation with art writer and historian Sandhya Bordewekar, Amit Bhar shares his journey from the Hooghly river to the Ganges, where he found his ultimate muse in Varanasi.

In his own words, Amit Bhar recounts his story:

To fulfill your dreams, you have to believe in yourself and follow your own single-point agenda.

My father, aunt and uncle were quite good at drawing. But since it did not fetch them a livelihood of any kind, they did not pursue it seriously and treated it as a hobby. When my father saw my passion for art, he did everything he could to draw me away from it and interest me in subjects that would help me earn a good living. I do not blame him; every parent wants the best for their child. But I persevered and continued with my passion.

Looking back now, I can say with pride that I drew quite well even at a tender age of 6 or 7 years. I still remember clearly the day I was sitting near the Hooghly river, at the Ganga ghat, very close to my hometown, Chinsurah, and sketching on bits and pieces of paper. I was joined by a group of students and their art teacher. He looked over my shoulder to see what I was drawing. He was Niloy Ghosh, a well-known and popular artist and teacher who offered art tuition in his studio. He smiled and asked me to join his class for free. It was the first life-changing turn in my development as an artist.

My drawing improved vastly under Niloy Ghosh’s guidance. I decided that when I finished school, I would continue my higher education in art. At that time, I also met artist-teacher Subal Jana who taught at the Government College of Art in Kolkata. He guided me regarding the admission procedures in good art colleges and taught me life study and other practical subjects for the admission tests. I would buy second-hand books off the footpath book-sellers that had images of paintings by European master artists and try out the techniques they appeared to have employed. This was an extremely good exercise.

Unknown to my family, I appeared for and cleared the entrance exams for the Government College of Art, Kolkata, as well as for Kala Bhavana at Santiniketan.

But my father refused to let me join either. Because of the difficult financial situation my family was faced with, I took up assignments to paint movie hoardings, do all kinds of design work, anything that was associated with drawing, painting, art. It helped me earn money as well as honed my skills in numerous ways as an artist. Since painting movie hoardings required good control over creating realistic faces as close as possible to the actors featured, my uncle introduced me to Paresh Das, a very fine artist who taught in a school and lived quite close to my home. In the beginning, he brushed me off as a ‘hoarding painter’ but when he saw my sketchbook, he agreed to guide me. That guidance was invaluable because he explained and demonstrated to me the importance of brush strokes, how to portray human skin on canvas, to work on the tiniest of wrinkles, and several other realistic painting techniques. It laid the foundation for my later work in portraiture.

During this time, I also made designs for printing on textile for some local cloth printers. I did not know then that this was an excellent job opportunity. I shifted to Bangalore to work for a huge company in textile printing. I was given a house to live in, and as I progressed in that city and learned everything I needed to know about modern technology in textile printing, I changed jobs. My salary increased, and I was also given a car. My family was very happy. But I was not.

I realized that while I was in a good place in material terms, I had moved far away from my childhood dream of becoming an artist.

This was the second life-changing turn in my life. Overnight, I gave up my job. And with that lost what we call the ‘good things of life.’ I was literally on the street, sleeping on the footpath. From my savings, I rented a small place where I lived and started offering tuition to school students. I was back to drawing and painting. And quite happy.

One day, I saw a poster of Pujo celebrations in the city by the local association of Bengalis living in Bangalore. I contacted them and got the assignment for creating the necessary decorations and the large pandala that housed the Devi image, a traditional and popular format practiced all over Bengal and wherever there were Bengali communities celebrating Durga Puja. That pandala I designed attracted so much attention that I was overwhelmed with more projects related to forthcoming festivals and family celebrations. But most importantly, I caught the eye of some of the art-lovers and art galleries in Bangalore. One of those Bangalore galleries offered me an exhibition right away. I was delighted!

My dream was finally coming true. The blessings of Durga were with me.

This was the third and most significant life-changing turn in my life. The support from my Bangalore gallery was consistent and proactive. It gave me the confidence to show in other cities across India and, later on, in other parts of the world. I began to work on portraits as well. These had an added dimension of surface ornamentation, a technique I learned while working on textile design and printing. My portraits also went beyond the simply realistic rendering of a person — they were highlighted with drawings of significant persons or events in their lives capsuled in the ‘landscape’ of the facial features.

Then one day I came across a picture of Varanasi which completely blew my mind. The mighty Ganges in the image took me back to the Hooghly’s Ganga ghat of my childhood. Memories came flooding in. I took the next flight to Varanasi. I wandered all over that old holy city, from early morning till late at night, taking in the unusual sights, the temples, the ghats, the boats on the Ganga, the narrow gullies, the chant of the shlokas and mantras, its pervasive spirituality. I painted an entire exhibition on Varanasi, exploring its many facets. Since then Varanasi is very big in my imagination and a wonderful theme to work on.

I travel to Varanasi once every year — it is a kind of rebirth.

I come back as a new person, my head and heart full of visually exciting ideas. In 2005, I personally organized my show at the Habitat Centre in New Delhi, showing 37 acrylic paintings and watercolors. They were all sold out — it was a record of sorts! The exhibition was covered widely in the media — print and TV.

Personally, I love to do watercolors. My earlier exhibitions had more watercolors than canvases. It is a difficult and challenging medium — you make a mistake, and it is just not possible to repair. Though art viewers respond warmly to watercolors, when it comes to buying, people prefer oil or rather acrylic on canvas. That’s the way it is. But in my heart, what rules is Varanasi and watercolors.

I lived and worked in Bangalore, but I dearly missed my parents. I wanted my father to understand that art can help a truly determined artist to earn a decent living. The opportunity came in 2007 when my Bangalore gallery organized an exhibition in the recently opened Leela Palace Hotel, close to the spanking new international airport. It was a huge solo show where I had exhibited every kind of artwork I made. The “who’s who” of Bangalore and art collectors from all over were invited. I flew my father over for the inauguration, and he had the honor of lighting the lamp to mark the inauguration of the show.

The pride and joy I saw in my father’s eyes at that moment was more than all the treasures of Aladdin!

To browse our curated collection of contemporary paintings by Indian artist Amit Bhar, visit https://laasyaart.com/amit-bhar. In addition to his Varanasi paintings and his portraits of iconic Indian figures like Mother Teresa and Rabindranath Tagore, Amit also offers custom portraits of individuals and families. If you would like to make an appointment to see these works in person at our Indian art gallery in Palo Alto, please reach out at info@laasyaart.com or +1 650-770-9088.

— Sonia Patwardhan