The Right Impression

A NUDE figure sporting a familiar Gandhi cap swings back and forth on a jhoola. This allegory of a typical politician, often shameless, swin...

A NUDE figure sporting a familiar Gandhi cap swings back and forth on a jhoola. This allegory of a typical politician, often shameless, swinging from party to party, is a dominant feature of Noni Borpuzari8217;s best-known painting.

Borpuzari who? The name might be unfamiliar in the metros, but in Assam, this self-taught artist, specialising in political satire, is a household name. In fact, Borpuzari is better known internationally than in the national art circuit. A disciple and close associate of printmaking guru Paul Lingren, this Guwahati-based artist is the only Indian whose works have found a permanent place in the State Museum, Majdanek, Poland. Majdanek was a concentration camp during the dark years of Nazi occupation; the museum now exclusively displays works that speak against war and violence.

8216;8216;I am essentially a simple and helpless being struggling to express my agonies and lessen my burdens,8217;8217; says 52-year-old Borpuzari, who chose art over his high school dream of becoming an athlete. He has participated in printmaking workshops in Canada and America and his works have found place in various collections all over the world. His name has also been selected for inclusion in the third edition of the Directory of Print, being prepared by the International Print Triennial Society, Cracow, Poland. The British Museum, the Harvard University Museum and National Gallery Edinburgh consider this directory a valuable collection of works of printmakers.

But why is his brush so vocal about politicians? 8216;8216;Well, politicians and their antics have greatly affected the lives of common people and I want my paintings to give them a voice,8217;8217; says the artist, who spends his free time working towards the preservation and revival of the indigenous Puthi Chitra tradition, initiated by Sankaradeva in the 16th century.

Death is another of the artist8217;s obsessions. Especially evocative is a painting with its skewed perspective of a dead man looking up at the grief-stricken mourners around him.

8216;8216;It is a natural result of the environment around you and me, all of us,8217;8217; he shrugs. 8216;8216;I cannot and do not paint out of vacuum. I am influenced by the people and the happenings around me,8217;8217; he says categorically. And this exactly why Borpuzari8217;s works are so easily understood and appreciated. He is the perfect communicator.