Meet Tapan Bordoloi, an artist of repute who has dedicated himself for the love and teaching of art. He has struggled and gone through a lot of hardship and believes art is something he would always love to learn and try to teach.
He was born at Jorhat in 1938 to tea garden manager Gajendra Nath Bordoloi. His mother Bimola Devi, a housewife, took proper care of her five sons and three daughters. Bordoloi’s childhood was normal. But the only difficulty was to maintain his interest in art. After his formal education, his first job was in Ziro High School, Arunachal Pradesh, where he worked as a subject teacher. For five years, he worked in several other schools of Arunachal Pradesh. It was hard for him to concentrate on two things at a time, but he kept practising art throughout and was influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso and Abanindra Nath Tagore. Passion for art in this young man’s heart kept him going.
One day, his elder sister Nistarini Devi, seeing his fascination for art, asked him to pursue his real interest. Bordoloi’s dream came true when she told him that she would take care of his finances. The support of his entire family helped Tapan Bordoloi leave his job to become an artist.
In Santiniketan, he experienced many new, astonishing facts of life. He not only worked hard, but learned fast and attracted the attention of his teachers and co-workers. He gradually evolved the highly individual medium of expression in his works. His skill in the tempera technique gave him a chance to visit Gujarat’s Kirti Mandir for the restoration work of Nandalal Bose’s paintings, which were mural paintings in egg tempera technique, with Samir Roy, his fellow colleague and two teachers, Vishwaroop Bose, son of Nandalal Bose and Sukhen Ganguly. A sense of deep satisfaction about that opportunity still makes Bordoloi feel proud.
In his Santiniketan days, Bordoloi had the privilege of meeting famous personalities like Ramkinkar Baiz and Binode Bihari Mukherjee, and learning a lot from them about the adoption of colours, traditional forms and themes, precise observation, painting techniques and ‘signature’. He graduated in Fine Arts from Visva Bharati, Santiniketan in 1974. After passing out, he joined the Magadh Medical College, Bihar as a staff artist for one year.
His first exhibition, a one-man show, was organised in Jorhat in 1974. In 1979, there was another one-man show in the State Art Gallery, Guwahati. During his service as staff artist in Guwahati Medical College, he had participated in several exhibitions throughout the country, such as in Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, Birla Academy, Kolkata, Sankaradev Kalakshetra, Guwahati, etc besides taking part in various workshops at the state and national level. Painting portraits has been a forte of Bordoloi, who has done life size portraits of Gopinath Bardoloi, Murlidhar Baruah, Tulsi Narayan Sharma, Col Uma Sharma, among others.
In 2004-06, Bordoloi was awarded senior fellowship for Visual Art by the Department of Culture, Government of India. In his research he focussed on the cultural and religious aspects as depicted in the manuscript paintings of Assam. It contains the outcome of study and fieldwork on the manuscript paintings of Assam, along with the original paintings having traditional character with drawings and photographs. It has sixteen remarkable and spectacular illustrated paintings which had been collected from the different satras and institution of Assam.
Sri Bordoloi is now the principal of the art class of Guwhati Artists’ Guild. From 1976, since its inception, he has maintained the responsibility of his position with honesty, simplicity and sincerity. Bordoloi is also engaged with several magazines and other art work. Bordoloi retired from GMC in 1979.
For Bordoloi, art is about expressing his true views, ideas and thoughts. No matter what technique one uses, it should be clear and expressive. Asked about the new generation’s work, Bordoloi says previously paintings were very expressive and were easier to understand, but today, everything is quite experimental and various new techniques have come up.
Guwahati Artists Guild presented a retrospective of Bordoloi’s paintings in April this year. All the works displayed in the exhibition have the artist’s traditional approach. His classic works include paintings of scenes from Indian mythology and social problems. They display bold composition, variety of colours, and meticulous brushwork. The temperas are wonderfully decorated and painted artistically. He has put his efforts to focus on the miniature form of art. Among them, he liked his work called Tsunami, a tempera on muga.
His works in this exhibition have shown his concern for the people of Assam and the problems they face. His command over drawing is extraordinary. Needless to say, his oil works were exceptional. His sensitivity and emotional spirit make his paintings and portraits glow.
For Bordoloi, every day is a new beginning and with this thought he has advised amateurs to learn sincerely. Strong determination and hard work pays. Tapan Bordoloi’s impression on his students and the people around him is immense and through them it is suffused all over the State and the nation.
