Who can best depict the human anatomy but a surgeon and even better when he has full of enlightening thoughts to convey regarding it! The combined results of the two was stunningly evident in maxillofaciolist Srijon Mukherji’s exhibition “…Thy Name IsWoman” at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, recently. The paintings were an original rendition of different expressions of women from the mythological times to the present, from bold and tender to enduring and defying. The features of the faces in each painting have been deliberately kept alike, so as to enhance the effects of her umpteen varieties of forms.
There was the painting of Medusa, the female monster from Greek mythology, whose fierce gaze had the power to turn one into stone. Another painting named “Jaya”, a lady at horseback, amidst the backdrop of war, was shown gallantly clutching to a sword. Next to it was the tender image of “Pieta” that resembled the feminine quality of providing solace to the troubled.
The paintings were in vibrant shades of acrylics. A generous use of bright acrylic colours rendered the figures a dreamy look and transported the viewers into an ethereal world. Ethereal though they were, the painter seemed to draw attention to questions of disturbing social realities hidden in them, “Why cannot the women be themselves and be freed of the pressures of satisfying the male ego?”
This was touchingly depicted in the painting “Torment” where a woman is shown having intimacy with a number of men just like any men might do without being frowned upon by the society but at the end of the day, when she comes to seek mental support from the one she truly loves, he can’t give her that freely, barred by his ego of superiority.
In another piece named “Audacious”, two lovers were lost into each other’s embrace. Both had a pair of wings but one was cut off from each of them with blood dripping out. This referred to the blows and hardships lovers, especially women, often receive from the society. “Nirbhaya”, which the painter claimed to be close to his heart, not only portrayed the devastating fate of the girl, the country mourned for, but also how women in general has the power in them to defy all odds and rise to freedom. “I never really find any difference between my profession as a surgeon and my passion for painting. They give me equal satisfaction,” said Mukherji.