An Impetuous Spirit:Hemen Mazumdar

P. Shome

Hemen Mazumdar is now hailed as one of the prominent figures among the principal exponents of modern art in India. To know the grammar of the art of painting is one thing and do make good use of the knowledge afterwards is quite a different thing altogether. Many a cleaver man possessing sound technical training and even the depth of vision to look into the pleasant nooks of nature has failed to produce anything better than mere school studies all through life. Whereas, there are others whose knowledge of the technique is not so sound but their work contains a greater human interest. The reason for this lies in the fact that the qualities of head and heart which are so essential to get a deep insight into the character of things can never be acquired under any amount of expert instruction. They are the spontaneous gifts of nature granted only to a few of her choice votaries. To educate the eye to a just sense of proportion, colour and form and to express facts in nature as one finds them are the main virtues of great artist. Mazumdar’s works, as a rule, contain these two qualities to such an extent that they override all technical faults and breathe an air of beauty that speaks to the imagination and conducts us from the surface to regard the soul within.

Mazumdar saw the light of day in a poor middle class family of a small village in the district of Mymensingh, East Bengal. In a country where the people have, to a great extent, lost their ancient instinct for art it is but natural that the career of an artist should meet with scorn and rebuff. Mazumdar’s early inclination towards art shared the same fate. Had he been gifted with a less impetuous spirit, sometimes bordering on insubordination, he would not have been able to withstand the callous disregard of his countrymen and make himself the artist he became. His remarkable disposition towards art evinced itself while he was still very young as he was found to be copying the exact appearance of things even at the neglect of his general education. But his ‘nasty’ habit of copying which bore the striking evidence of a latent artistic talent was neither appreciated nor approved of at the time; it was, on the contrary, thought to be the precursor of a ruined life with failure writ large on it. Under such an atmosphere of intolerance it was quite natural that his artistic instinct should receive a rude shock and alas, at the very first stage of its development!