Shilpe O Shilpo

Calendar Exhibition for World Art Day 2023

Date: 15 April 2023

Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Venue: Kalyan Bhavan, Cooch Behar

Collaboration: Somokalin Chitra Shilpi Goshti

Project Overview

Shilpe O Shilpo was a calendar exhibition organized on the occasion of World Art Day in 2023. The project explored the relationship between artists, artworks, and everyday life by presenting a series of designed calendars that combine artistic knowledge with a commonly used daily object.

The exhibition was conceived, designed, and organized by Ashok Sutradhar, who proposed the idea to Somokalin Chitra Shilpi Goshti. After the proposal was accepted, the project was developed into an exhibition where the calendars were presented as both functional design objects and visual educational material.

The aim of the project was to introduce audiences to artists, artistic movements, and cultural history through a format that people encounter in their everyday environment.

Concept

A calendar is a simple object that people interact with every day to organize time and schedule their activities. Despite its constant presence in daily life, it rarely functions as a medium for learning about art or culture.

This project explored how a calendar could become both a functional object and an educational visual resource.

The calendars were designed according to the Bengali calendar system, while the numbers were presented in English numerals. This approach was intended to make the dates easier to read and accessible for people who are more accustomed to English numerical formats in their daily routines.

In contemporary life, most people rely on the Gregorian calendar for planning and scheduling their work. As a result, Bengali dates are often overlooked in everyday life, except during culturally significant occasions such as Poila Boishakh (Bengali New Year) and Pochishe Boishakh (Rabindranath Tagore’s birth anniversary).

Through this project, the intention was to bring the Bengali calendar back into everyday awareness. By integrating Bengali dates into a visually engaging calendar format, users can easily notice and recognize these dates while using the object in their daily life.

At the same time, the calendar pages include information about artists, artworks, and art movements. In this way, anyone who collects or uses the calendar not only owns a functional object but also gains knowledge about art and artists through an object they see every day.

Calendar Series

The exhibition presented four different thematic calendar series, each focusing on a specific artistic tradition or historical context.

Bengali Artists

This series highlighted notable Bengali artists and their artworks, presenting the visual heritage and creative contributions of artists from Bengal.

Rabindranath Tagore – paintings

This calendar focused on the visual artworks of Rabindranath Tagore. Although Tagore is widely known as a poet and writer, he was also an important visual artist. The series explored this artistic dimension of his creative practice.

Bengal School of Art

This series explored the Bengal School of Art, an influential movement in modern Indian art that emerged in the early twentieth century. The calendar presented artists and artworks associated with this movement and reflected its cultural and aesthetic significance.

World Famous Artists

The fourth series focused on twelve internationally recognized artists who shaped global art history. Each month featured a different artist, presenting their portrait and contextual information about their artistic contribution.

Exhibition Design and Setup

The exhibition setup was also designed and constructed by Ashok Sutradhar.

An important aspect of the installation was the use of upcycled materials. Earlier, Ashok had worked on the NCLP Republic Day tableau project. After the Republic Day celebration, the tableau structure was dismantled. Instead of discarding those materials, they were reused and transformed into display structures for the calendar exhibition.

Using these reclaimed materials, the exhibition included:

wooden display boxes for the calendars
standing display panels
shelving structures for presenting the calendar series

This approach allowed the exhibition to be built with minimal additional resources while extending the life of existing materials.

Title of the Exhibition

The title “Shilpe O Shilpo” was finalized shortly before the exhibition opened. The phrase reflects the connection between the artist and the act of creating art, which aligns with the overall concept of the project.

Role and Contribution

For this project, Ashok Sutradhar was responsible for:

developing the concept of the exhibition
proposing the project to Somokalin Chitra Shilpi Goshti
designing all four calendar series
researching artists, artworks, and art movements
preparing the final calendar designs and printed materials
designing and constructing the exhibition setup
repurposing materials from the NCLP tableau to create display structures
organizing and presenting the exhibition.

Purpose and Outcome

The project aimed to celebrate World Art Day while creating a bridge between everyday life, art education, and cultural awareness. By transforming the calendar into an artistic and informative object, the exhibition encouraged viewers to encounter art history and Bengali cultural timekeeping within their daily routines.

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