Firmly with farmers on canvas-A silent crusade

IT's using brushstrokes to paint one's agonies and anguishes. At a time when the protesting farmers in the national capital are gearing up to kick off a 'rail roko' agitation and have vouchsafed not to return home from Delhi's borders till the new agri laws are repealed, some of the famed and young artists in Bengal have taken up paint brushes to stand firmly with the farmers, so many miles away.

Prachi Protichi, a 22 year old socio-cultural organisation, that has all along stood beside the oppressed and deprived lots in various forms, has now thrown open an art exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts, in the cultural capital of the city, portraying the most politically sensitive issue of the day- farmers' protest from the painters' perspective. Aptly called, "Firmly with Farmers on Canvas", the art exhibition displays 22 paintings from 22 painters- some well-known and some young and bright. The list of painters includes Jogen Chowdhury, Wasim Kapoor, Hiran Mitra, Subrata Gangyopadhyay, Ram Kumar Manna, Prasenjit Sengupta, Debojyoti Roy, among others.

"We firmly believe that the blood, that flows through our veins are same as that of the farmers. Farmers are the chief architects of our lives. We live and we thrive because of them. These unequivocally vocal paintings are truly chronicles of a revolution, which could and should have been avoided. This is to stand beside them and say: 'we are with you'," says Tapas Mullick, president, Prachi Protichi.

"An upgraded or developed agriculture is the only viable alternative to agriculture," adds Mullick.

Since 1999, Prachi Protichi organised similar art exhibitions on various topical issues including the US aggression against Iraq, against fundamentalism, lost forms of arts, to mention a few.

Some of these canvases have used colours while some are in black and white. But all of them show life in black and white.