Artists today are aware of the present-day demands and wish to acquire a flexibility that would keep them in sync with all the changes taking place around them. Today, this flexibility is largely given by science, and artists now have a whole range of multimedia tools spread out before them – computer, video, photography, sound-effects, to name a few. Modern science is bringing new techniques to artists’ studio and enabling them to expand their individual artistic vocabularies.

The unlimited possibilities given by the computer for artistic use is helping computer-savvy artists in a big way, and computer graphics is now a well-entrenched part of the extended domain of visual art. With virtual media and surface, computer graphics is all about brain and hand coordination, and immensely diverse works of art can be produced at the click of the mouse.

The beauty of digital prints lies in the fact that appearance-wise, it is totally different from any other style. However, sometimes it is also observed that many artists manage to take it as close to conventional painting as possible when viewed from a distance, and this compels the viewer to have a closer look.

Computer graphics often allows artists to take a break from their adopted mode. This deviation in turn re-energizes the thinking and at times even hones their artistic skills further, which comes in handy when they return to their usual activity. Some artists in our State are seen exhibiting computer-generated paintings from time to time, but since they are few and far between, it may be surmised that this technique is yet to really take off in Assam.

However, a serious attempt in this direction was witnessed at a recent exhibition held at the State Art Gallery, Rabindra Bhawan. It was perhaps the first all-digital exhibition held in the capital city. The exhibition, by four faculty members of the Fine Arts Department, Assam University, Silchar, not only provided art lovers a nice break from the usual, it also established the fact that good art works can indeed be produced if artistic thinking is combined nicely with the tools provided by the computer.

The group Why consists of Sivan G, Nirmal Kanti Roy, Dr Meghali Goswami and Baharul Islam Laskar. All of them have individual styles and thematic varieties. In Sivan’s works, for instance, space plays an important part, which is qualified by geometrical shapes of varied colours. He also uses repetitive forms and patterns to good effect. Roy focuses on Nature, especially foliage, but his emphasis is not on reproducing it but to create a dramatic air with the correlation between the background space and surroundings. Goswami’s works deal with simple subject matters and have a delicate touch in her forms. Geometric shapes and lines also appear frequently in her works. In Baharul’s works, which are surrealistic in spirit, there is great emphasis on the human element while colours play a descriptive role.

In the area of computer graphics, the tools and techniques usually take precedence but these artists succeeded in overriding it to create aesthetically sound works of art.

d.bezbarua@yahoo.co.in

Debashish Bezbaruah