A Rich Mosaic

Anirudh Chari visits a show in Kolkata that tries to chart and celebrate the multi-directional journey of Indian art over the last 75 years.

- Anirudh Chari

In the seventy-fifth year of India's independence, the notion of 'freedom' is a contested and hotly debated one. The needs and challenges of contemporary life in this country are continuously explored by artists whose works imagine, desire, perform and evoke what freedom means to them.

Colours of Freedom, on view from the 20th of May to the 30th of July at CIMA Gallery, Kolkata, attempted to bring together a large selection of works to present a variegated view of freedom. While it is impossible to deny the beauty, significance and validity of several of the individual pieces, the exhibition, as a whole, was a little lacklustre. Arranged and displayed chronologically, the narrative lacked vigour. Perhaps too ambitious in its scope, it failed to do justice to its constituent parts.