Untitled (acrylic on canvas) 

Jahar Dasgupta painted this untitled work, in acrylic on canvas. We see a figure playing a flute, surrounded by verdant flora and fauna. Dasgupta was born in Bengal, India. With this in mind, the prevalence of the color green may evoke the natural world, and the figure with the flute might be understood as an allusion to Krishna, a major deity in Hinduism, often associated with pastoral imagery and the flute. We might also think of the British colonial presence and its impact on Indian identity, the Indian landscape, and artistic expression. How might Dasgupta be reacting to the colonial institutions of art, and how might he be embracing or rejecting traditional forms? To understand this painting better, one might research the cultural symbolism of the flute in India, the history of Bengal modernism, and the place of Hindu iconography in post-colonial Indian art. The meaning of art is contingent on social and institutional context, and it’s the job of the historian to interpret this for us.