Come Together

Artist Shail Choyal has never met Bengal painter Somnath Maity or seen his works. But visitors to Bonding, a recent group show here, discovered amazing likenesses in the paintings of the two. Choyal’s oil-on-canvas of hometown Udaipur was uncannily like Maity’s cityscape by night. Neither was taken aback, however. Says Choyal: "I’ve been told my works are reminiscent of Bhupen Khakar’s as well. Our imagery is close, but our ideas are totally different." Maity echoes Choyal’s (this time) take. "There are some elements of the subject which are similar," he says, "but not the temperament." And that’s where Bonding happens. It finds links between the works of various schools of art, traditions, styles etc. "It’s about building bridges between the different ‘gharanas’ of art," says curator