Akar Prakar presents bronze sculptures by Sarbari Roy Choudhury (1933-2012).

Sarbari’s strength lied not in shaking up our conception of art or sculpture, but in carrying its known possibilities to a level of perfection and subtlety so rare that it assumes an aura of uniqueness. This makes him stand out not only among his contemporaries, but also in the history of modern Indian sculpture.

Being an ingrained connoisseur of music, several of his sculptures are of musicians and whether the head is turned meditative and rock-like as in the portrait of Ali Akbar, or it is worked into a musical tremor as in the case of Bade Gulam Ali Khan, or set in motion by an intense wave of emotion as in the portrait of Siddheshwari Devi – their sculptural plasticity is determined by the character of their musical expression. In other portraits too, of friends and acquaintances whose heads attract his attention, he bestows on them the mood his sitters evoke in him. The attempt to give a stable expression to the fleeting pervades all his portraits to some degree.

To view the exhibition online, click here.