Rebanta Goswami's Page

During the early years of the twentieth century, Clive Bell, the British aesthetician advanced the theory of significant form, meaning a qaulity in art that existed
independently of any representation, symbolic content and of emotion. It was this
concept upon which the entire structure of modernism in art was built. At home,
Nirode Mazumdar too saw no difference between the shape of a pitcher and a living face. To him it was the formal content that was of utmost necessity in art.

Theories however never stay put; they never brood over eternity. John Onans, another British aesthetician, has recently spoken of a new approach of seeing art, which he has named as neuroaesthetics on the basis of the fact that each individual configures different neutral network according to his or her proclivities, abilities and inclinations. That is the reason why human mind shifts from images to images and never configures identical visual units as nature does. Human beings imagine and create myriad visual units, transform objects of physical reality into signifiers and symbolic portents which reflect a deep-seated trait of the human spirit as well as fathom the depth of the latent layers of mind.

Rebanta Goswami's apparently bizarre images build up enigmatic narratives steeped in memory and phantasmagoria. A pedlar walking like a somnambulist
ignoring a barking dog, a human head resembling a samovar or a crater of a living
volcano, a horned ram against a moon as a recurrent motif, nocturnal sights with
weird-looking animals staring at the viewers, a poodle and a speeding car, a dark
figure against a white one, both betraying anonymity - present a series of seamless
narratives that fits into John Onans' concept of neuroaesthetics. It is the human mind that can only conjure up such visions that the physical reality can never show. In art it is the mind that operates and it is the brain that draws and paints; and Rebanta Goswami as a creative artist offers a unique vista that only visuals can unfold. His paintings are both baffling and beautiful, distinguishing but thought-provoking as they venture into the zone of neural plasticity.
He leaves enough room for the viewer to consider him as a mocker who mocks none but himself or envisions a time that itself is nightmarish. There are allusions to magic and alchemy; human and animal forms either interchange their roles or are combined to the point of utter absurdity; and, symbols abound. The narratives however take us to the primal depth of the collective-unconscious and it seems doubtful whether the readings of the narratives will ever be complete or not.

Valmiki was amazed at the utterances that he had made as he did not know who
spoke through him. An artist paints in an ecstatic state of mind and later on wonders
at his own creations when he puts down his brush. He can never re-do or re-enact that
state of being again as he interfaces another situation when he stands before the next
canvas. The neuroaesthetic state of mind is something which defies all verbal
explanations. Rebanta's art shows those rare moments when an artist enters into a dialogue with the self. He confirms that, art does not exist in void, and, forms are not
independent of a thinking mind. As an artist, Rebanta Goswami is an individual and his canvas amply speak of his individuality.

Professor Sovon Som, D. Lit. (Artist, Art Critic and Art-historian)
Ex Dean of Faculty, The Faculty of Fine Arts, R.B.University, Kolkata
19 August 2008