Art musings with Paresh Maity

“I’ll request you to take a few minutes break as I have come to an optician,” says Paresh Maity, one of India’s most distinguished artists, soon after we exchange niceties to start our WhatsApp interview. “I have an international webinar today and the light from my desktop and phone creates a blue reflection on my glasses. There is a lens that helps avoid this, you know, and it just costs ~1,500,” he explains. This is good information to have in these video call and webinar-driven days, so I am happy to wait. 

And when the Padma Shri awardee returns my call exactly five minutes later, I have to ask for his views on social media, particularly on Instagram. 

“I don’t do Instagram. In fact, I downloaded WhatsApp only six months ago and that’s because you can always connect with me on it when the network is bad,” he tells me. In any case, he adds, he doesn’t really have the time to devote to upload his artwork on social media. 

Pure and simple 

“Besides, you can never experience feelings and emotions by looking at a painting on a laptop!” says Maity whose latest book, A Portrait Of The Artist In The World, features his art shot by celebrated photographer Nemai Ghosh.  

“All the photos in this book have been clicked purely using a film camera, they all are black-and-white images and nothing has been photoshopped. I don’t like artificial things in life,” says Maity. “I’m a day person. I paint during the day and take a walk at dusk to enjoy the fading sunlight. The more close to nature you go, the closer you are to life,” he says.

That pretty much sums up his approach to life and people, in particular ‘Nemai da’, who travelled with him throughout the world and captured each moment on his camera. 

“I love to travel, so much so that I had thought I’d become a driver if nothing else worked out!” -Paresh Maity

“He and I come from the same district (Tamluk in West Bengal) but that was not the connection. I knew him through his photographs and he knew me through my paintings,” says Maity. “We met about 25 years back, we clicked well and he said, ‘I want to photograph you, you travel so much all over the world’. I asked him where he had travelled and he said: ‘Except a trip with Satyajit Ray to Jaisalmer, not really out of Bengal.’”

“I said to Nemai da, ‘I’ll take you to all of my favourite places’. And so, I have travelled with him for the last 25 years through the length and breadth of India as well as different parts of the world, and he photographed me without my knowledge in every aspect – reading the newspaper, having a cup of tea with some pakoras. We had a fantastic relationship, like that of a mama-bhagna (maternal uncle and nephew). We had a huge age difference,  yet we were very close,” says Maity. 

Work in progress

So how did they come up with this book? One day, six years ago Ghosh, who is essentially known as Satyajit Ray’s photographer, suggested that he and Maity collaborate on a solo book and the latter agreed.

(Clockwise) A Portrait Of The Artist In The World features Paresh Maity’s photos clicked by Nemai Ghosh in Varanasi, Shantiniketan and one of his favourite places, Venice, and a rare photo of Ghosh capturing Maity in Shimla

“We compiled our journey of 25 years in six years,” he says. “The book took time to put together as it is very meticulous, we were very careful about the design. Finally, we have 370 pages and it weighs more than four kilos and is the most comprehensive book. I was lucky to send it to him three days before he passed away in March this year.” 

Maity likens their time spent travelling to a child’s play. “We were like children – me playing with the canvas and he with the camera. I love to travel, so much so that I had thought I’d become a driver if nothing else worked out!” Maity laughs. 

Speaking of favourites 

“I’ve been to Venice 27 times. So, I thought I must take Nemai da there. Many artists, writers, photographers love Venice and one of my favourite moments captured in the book is a photo in Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) – one of the most crowded squares in the world, where he has captured me painting amid thousands of people and pigeons flying,” recalls Maity.  

Another photo that’s close to Maity’s heart is one clicked by a river in Shantiniketan where he’s drinking tea and reading a newspaper. 

“He has captured the very essence of my being,” says Maity. “I love music and I love travelling, so every winter I saunter off either to Shantiniketan where I sketch Baul musicians or to a village in Rajasthan to paint folk musicians. The light there is golden and beautiful. I’m a wanderer. And I love villages. I am a villager, after all!”   

As for his biggest inspiration, Maity names the mighty Pablo Picasso. “He was always painting spontaneously and converted everything into art. I too paint whatever I get – tables, chairs, etc. Just now I was painting masks,” he chimes and WhatApps a photo of his masterpieces to me right after we disconnect our call.

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From HT Brunch, August 30, 2020