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Jiban Biswas: Modernity through Nature

With regards to craftsmanship, there has dependably been a dash of convention and culture in the craftsman's portrayal of the thoughts. There have been popular specialists who have managed the possibility of the way of life of one's own and spoken to it in a way that it turns into a trademark. The similarity yet the difference makes the work of art so precious, and Jiban Biswas also does the same with his work. His works have a common metaphor of confusion and understanding, the dichotomy of it being labeled through something from nature. The modern life impacts Biswas’ life so much, that he has made it a major subject in his artwork.

Jiban Biswas orignal paintings are a product of his life as a whole. Born in a small village in Birbhum, Bengal, his life has been very close to nature. But as with every part of the world, modernity seeped into his life making it a confusing time to comprehend the reality. He has juggled with the idea of self-representation through a natural thing, like an animal and has successfully made it into his art. His works have color, a lot of it, but those colors are somewhat faded. They are bright, yet not as bright as to shock the eye. They have a soothing nature to it, which complements his style of painting forms.

Jiban Biswas orignal paintings have a very common motif of a cow. The cow in his paintings is a representation of himself. Through the cow, he presents the dichotomy of old and new, modern and folk. The modern intrusion into his life has been directly represented by the cow’s stature in his painting where they are endowed with ornaments.

Jiban Biswas in his painting pits the cow or natural self against the modern technology with the gramophone, mic, and burger making way into the frame with the cow. The incomprehensibility of the art is a direct representation of his confusion filled a life. His difficulty in setting up and moving on with the modern life is aptly represented through the personal works. Cow, which is also a revered animal in India, has been transposed as India, the country which is trying to comprehend and live up to the terms of modernity. These paintings are not just nature pitted against the synthetic but also the life against the stagnancy that has come with the modern lifestyle. It is a statement on our very existence and the reality of it all.