| Medium | : | Gouche |
|---|---|---|
| Height | : | 9 inch / 22.9 cm |
| Width | : | 12 inch / 30.5 cm |
| Dimension | : | W: 30.5 cm × H: 22.9 cm |
This 1984 gouache painting by Gobardhan Ash is a poignant and atmospheric portrayal of working-class life, rendered with the sensitivity and stylistic nuance that defined his mature practice. Known for his commitment to social realism and his deep engagement with the rhythms of everyday life, Ash here captures a group of labourers — primarily children — engaged in quiet, communal activity across an earthy terrain.
Gobardhan Ash | Untitled | Gouache on Paper | 9 x 12 inches | 1984
This 1984 gouache painting by Gobardhan Ash is a poignant and atmospheric portrayal of working-class life, rendered with the sensitivity and stylistic nuance that defined his mature practice. Known for his commitment to social realism and his deep engagement with the rhythms of everyday life, Ash here captures a group of labourers — primarily children — engaged in quiet, communal activity across an earthy terrain.
What makes this work particularly significant is its humanism. Ash does not romanticize labour; instead, he dignifies it through form, tone, and composition. The use of gouache — a medium that allows for both opacity and softness — enhances the tactile immediacy of the scene, while the small scale of the paper invites intimate viewing. The figures, though loosely rendered, are emotionally precise: their postures and interactions suggest resilience, camaraderie, and the silent poetry of survival. Within Ash’s repertoire, this painting stands as a distilled moment of his lifelong commitment to portraying the marginalized with empathy and aesthetic rigor.
For collectors, this offers a rare glimpse into Ash’s work, where his modernist training meets his social conscience. It reflects his belief that art must engage with life — not through grand narratives, but through the quiet dignity of ordinary people. This work is not just a document of labour — it is a lyrical meditation on community, endurance, and the beauty found in the everyday.
Born in 1907, Gobardhan Ash came into his own as an artist at a time when indian art was in a state of historical flux, when the imagination of young artists was infused with the spirit of country’s freedom from colonial rule.
He trained at the Government College of Art in Calcutta from 1926-30, and at the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Madras, till 1932. He was an active member of various artist collectives such as the Calcutta Group that he joined in 1950, the Art Rebel Centre, and the Young Artists Union, of which he was a founder member.
A prolific yet reclusive artist, Ash worked in a variety of mediums, including watercolour, tempera, acrylic, and oil; he was also a fine draughtsman. Starting out with landscapes and portraits, Ash evolved as an artist by experimenting with naturalistic and socio-realistic themes, and abstract expressionism. Common people toiling hard to earn their livelihood were frequent subjects in Ash’s earlier works. One of his most acclaimed series was on the ravages of the 1943 Bengal famine that killed millions of people; a documentary film on the artist and his famine series was commissioned by the Government of India in 1985.
Beginning with the first prize of the Madras Fine Arts Society in 1936, Ash received several awards in his lifetime, including the West Bengal government’s Abanindra Puraskar in 1984. Filmmaker Nabyendu Chatterjee made a documentary on his life in the year he passed away.
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| Dimensions | 31.75 × 25.4 cm |
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