Alipore Museum opens up second phase of ‘Freedom and Awakening’ exhibition

KOLKATA: Alipore Museum opened up the second phase of the exhibition titled ‘Freedom and Awakening’ on Saturday, bringing together prominent and promising artists from all over India to explore the ideas of freedom on the road to awakening.

Artworks by contemporary Bengali artists namely Chhatrapati Dutta, Mithu Sen, Debasish Mukherjee, Smarak Roy, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Suman Dey, Arunima Choudhury and Debanjan Roy showcases a kaleidoscope of artistic expressions investigating individual freedom and collective awakening as a journey in progress.

One of the prime attractions of the exhibition is Chhatrapati Dutta’s poignant tribute to 10 notable and lesser-known patriots who were martyred within the premises of the Alipore-jail-turned-Museum. Captured in evocative wash portraits, Dutta creates an alternative to existing monochromes, transforming them into vivid chronicles of courage and sacrifice.

The only traditional sculpture in the exhibition, cast in bronze, is Debanjan Roy’s Gandhi—an icon of the Indian freedom struggle and a theme Roy has been artistically exploring for decades.

To mark the opening of Alipore Museum , the state government in collaboration with Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC) had curated the exhibition titled ‘Freedom and Awakening’. After a year-long successful run of the first phase of the exhibition, the second phase was unveiled. The exhibition will be displayed in multiple phases.

The launch on Saturday was attended by Richa Agarwal, Chairperson, Kolkata Centre for Creativity, Jawhar Sircar, Rajya Sabha MP, Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty, Former Chairperson, Lalit Kala Academy & Jayanta Sengupta, Director of Alipore Museum.