Great Masters Series BC Sanyal Elizabeth Brunner (DVD)

In this episode, watch two great personalities, one a Gandhian and freedom fighter and another a writer-social activist-theatre personality.

B. C. Sanyal’ I paint, because I have to paint’ that is Sanyal’s way of expressing the urge to hold a brush in hand and paint. He was not only a painter, but a sculptor also. Being a Bengali, he was familiar with Durga puja, and that got him interested in making sculptures, starting with clay and terra-cotta. His journey of art began right from the school of art, which he had joined. But, he was too naïve or simple to think of selling a work of art. It was the famous painter Jamini Roy, who patronized him. Sanyal believes that a creation of art should be the crystallization of experience, gained at different levels, emotional aesthetic. He abhors the idea of giving a title to a painting. Painting should be self-explanatory ad does not need any title. Sanyal, a multi-faceted personality, is interested in music also. He used to play upon a flute and he would make it himself from bamboo.

Elizabeth Brunner the artist in search of tranquility – never gave up her quest for something beyond ordinary experience. Born in Budapest in July 1910, she had her formal education there, and training in the Academy of Art. She moved to India, along with her mother, with whom she had a deeper relationship, a link that was meaningful, creative in figurative sense and inspirational. She was fascinated by the diversity of India. Elizabeth has captured this diversity on her canvases. They spent time in Shantiniketan-the abode of peace. Not only was the presence of the great artist-poet Tagore a source of inspiration, but the place, with its exotic gardens, variety of colours and shades and the atmosphere of tranquility, had a sublime beauty and Elizabeth’s restless spirit could hardly remain unaffected. She was keen to paint a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, who had lightly asked her whether she wanted to paint her ‘soul’. But her portrait of Mahatma does have a halo around it. She caught the panorama of India scene of her canvas. Elizabeth and her mother had a fascination for mountains and she ultimately became an inhabitant of mountains.