The fall of red

More than two decades ago,a young,idealistic and impressionable Ajay De joined the Communist Party of India in Kolkata. He shouted slogans,spouted rhetoric and joined rallies. “In those days,West Bengal was a bubbling volcano of political consciousness. Fiery young men like me would sit in coffee shops and discuss strategy for hours. Kolkata was a city where marching red flags were a common sight and where long before a child learns who Lenin is,he sees him as graffiti on walls,” reflects De.

Many years later,his association with politics has ebbed away. But the visual distinctness of the ideology has been translated into an exhibition titled The Last Communist,which opened at the Jehangir Art Gallery on Monday. Communism too has lost its appeal with its failure to provide for the people. So who is the last communist? He is the homeless beggar lying on moth-eaten rags on the streets,the scruffy poet composing sonnets beneath a statue of Lenin,the rickety jeep crammed with men jostling along narrow lanes. “He is anyone who Communism,as an ideology,has failed to serve,” says the Mumbai-based artist.

The ideology has invaded his canvas in a series of symbolic references,whether it is a sea of flags,or as metaphors like crows and ants claiming their ‘pound of flesh’ from the red revolutions or as the boy who withers under the misconception that he’s superman with the red cape of the communist flag slung over his shoulders—an oblique reference to De himself who once believed that Communism was the solution to all problems.

Having graduated from the JJ School of Art,the artist has held solo exhibitions at various prominent art galleries in Mumbai,Pune,Kolkata and Tokyo where he owns a studio. His piece de resistance is his charcoal drawings which has earned him the epithet ‘the charcoal master of India’.

In The Last Communist,the 42-year-old will be exhibiting 35 charcoal paintings,eight bronze sculptures and 10 sketches inspired by Japanese calligraphy. There is also a sound installation where he has captured the turmoil of tortured cries during riots,the sound of lathi-charges by the police,the crash of broken glass. The collection was compiled in a period of six months when he roamed the streets of Kolkata clicking more than 850 pictures out of which he selected a handful which formed the muse for his paintings. De delved into the psyche of the subjects of the photographs and poured into his canvas the thoughts and fears he perceived them to be feeling. For example,next to a photograph of a bunch of men avidly studying a communist message on the wall is a drawing of a man,tied and bound in a box—a metaphor for the warped hopes that communism offers.

So has he considered combating the problems from within the system? Joining politics,perhaps? “Oh no,” laughs the artist. “I’m too honest to join politics.”