A major retrospective of artist Gopesh Chandra Chakravarty, titled "Stranger Forms: The Forgotten Art of G.C Chakravarty," has opened at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata. Organized by Mikumar Vyas, founder of Dwija Gallery in Rajkot, the exhibition showcases paintings, drawings, illustrations, and archival material spanning Chakravarty's career, highlighting his self-taught creativity and his responses to political turmoil, famine, displacement, and spiritual inquiry. The show runs until June 28, 2026.
This retrospective matters because Chakravarty, born in 1905 in Sylhet, has been largely overlooked despite exhibiting alongside major contemporaries like Jamini Roy and Gopal Ghose. His work offers a crucial narrative of Bengal modernism and 20th-century Indian art, addressing identity, history, and human conditions that remain relevant. The exhibition reintroduces his contributions to a modern audience and underscores the importance of recovering forgotten artists from the margins of art history.