| Sipra Dattagupta |
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There is an unhurried contemplativeness in Sipra's art, which surfaces in the objectivity and precision with which she amplifies her creative vision. Most of her work originates from her perception of places visited during travels at home and abroad. Her serenely evocative watercolor paintings touched with gentle nostalgia, are however not appealing representations merely. The artist captures – through sensitive handling of light, perspective and color – the ‘genius' and soul of a place. This emerges vividly in her ‘The Colors of Italy', which reflect the strong influence of Paul Klee and the Impressionists.
In Sipra's words ‘ Italy is a mosaic of colors – colors that cascade into form. Burnt siennas, ochres, ‘rossos' and umbers blend with legendary ‘cittas' full of life into angel windows, grilled or stone balconies, arches, bridges and red tiled rooftops.' In most of her paintings, colors flow one into another as if spontaneously fused at their origin. Forms are outlined with strokes of color – mostly without structured drawings under the paint. Color blooms in broad strokes, sheer washes and – most enticingly – in fine brushwork, to suggest details of flower and foliage, meshed tiles, filigreed rails, or slatted shutters; and in her portrayals of light, blazing white, sliced into shade or transmuted into a vivid sunset shimmer, or sparkling diamonds on water.
Perspective is handled with equal felicity, evoking illusions of height; or space receding into the depths of the painting. Roads disappear into far distances, canals narrow away under distant bridges and paths wind up sheer slopes or skitter precipitously down over rough cobbles to the waterside.
In the dynamic, often cerebral ferment of the contemporary Indian art scene, Sipra's simple art nestles in the heart.
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About the Artist
Sipra Dattagupta did not train formally at any art college. But art was her passion, and she was tutored in the discipline by a renowned Calcutta artist – the late Kamala Roy Chowdhury. Widely traveled, Sipra has visited almost all the well known galleries around the world, pursuing and practicing her passion in private.
It has been only five years since she started exhibiting her work. In 2001, she participated in ‘Landscapes of Britain, a series of watercolor paintings' at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata. In 2006, she held her first solo exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts on ‘The colors of Italy '
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