Visual Memoir
An Enchanting Journey by Paresh Maity
(Art Alive Gallery)
Poetic and evocative are words that spring to mind when one leafs through this hardback that captures the sultry beauty of the South. Invited by the Kerala Tourism Department to travel through God’s Own Country, Kolkata-based artist Paresh Maity made this ‘enchanting journey’ through verdant landscapes, azure waterscapes and telling portraits of its lively culture. “Kerala has always fascinated me. It is beautiful, lyrical, romantic and mesmerising....” Maity waxes lyrical. A book of reproductions of these drawings, oils, watercolours and mixed media works alone would have been a collector’s item, but value-additions like a comprehensive essay by political cartoonist-writer Ravi Shankar depicting the history, customs, cuisine, culture, monuments of this southern state; a critique on the Maity art by Prof. R. Siva Kumar of Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan; photographs by Nemai Ghosh (celebrated for his stills of Satyajit Ray’s films), among others, makes this a useful and colourful compendium.

Multifaceted Maestro
The Myriad Minded Artist by Lalu Prasad Shaw
(Gallery Sanskriti)
Lalu Prasad Shaw is a rare talent who has successfully experimented with diverse media like conte, pastel, gouache, oil, water colour, tempera, besides etching and lithograph – so it is not surprising that Gallery Sanskriti decided to mark their 17th anniversary with a two-volume publication on the 70-year-old artist. While the first contains more than 200 colour plates of Shaw’s paintings and drawings, the second one showcases his graphics – which he focused on from 1966 to 1973. ‘This collection demonstrates Lalu Prasad Shaw’s mastery of printmaking methods,’ reiterates the illustrious artist-teacher K.G. Subramanyan, writing in the foreword to the second book. Author Sovon Som, the Assam-born Kolkata-based poet-painter-art historian-writer, eulogises in the first book, the ‘lad from a small district town, who was destined to cut a niche for himself over the years in the Indian modern art scenario with his distinctly individual and seminal contribution.’ These hardbound books, with photographs of the artist’s work by Goutam Mukherjee and archival photographs of the artist, his family, peers and friends, certainly do justice to Shaw’s myriad talents.