Benode Behari Mukherjee: Perceiving the Extraordinary Within The Mundane

Exceptionally creative individuals often find their path to freedom and individuality despite facing significant obstacles. One prime example of such a creator is Benode Behari Mukherjee, a 20th-century visual artist who managed to create masterpieces despite being visually impaired.

Unnamed painting by Benode Behari Mukherjee | Source: Wikimedia Commons

Mukherjee, a distinctly individualistic painter, was born with no vision in one eye and severe myopia in another, eventually losing his sight completely later in life. However, these physical challenges did not hinder his artistic expression. His creative spirit flourished under the early guidance of Nandalal Bose, a prominent painter at Shantiniketan, Tagore’s holistic educational institute in West Bengal.

Even before his formal education, Mukherjee's homeschooling in an environment emphasising scriptures and spiritual values instilled in him a sense of freedom and deep insight. These early experiences allowed him to see beyond his vanished vision later in life.

A scroll painting by Benode Behari Mukherjee | Source: Vadehra Art Gallery

Under Nandalal Bose's mentorship, Mukherjee’s artistic abilities flourished. While his initial works bore the mark of Bose’s style, Mukherjee quickly developed his own approach that transcended conventional modernist art. He brought new meaning to the concept of modernism.

At a time when his contemporaries chose mythological subjects expressed in various modern art styles, Mukherjee pioneered a new wave of realism. He painted the environment he saw and lived in, capturing interactions between people and animals within and around Shantiniketan. He found beauty in the mundane activities of semi-rural life, perceiving the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Murals on the walls of Shantiniketan buildings | Source: Samudra Kajal Saikia's Blog

As his reputation as an artist grew, Mukherjee began experimenting with different techniques to express his inner visions. With the construction of more buildings in Shantiniketan, there arose a need to adorn them with artistic mastery befitting culturally enriched places like Tagore’s school.

Mukherjee was commissioned to create numerous murals on the walls of Shantiniketan’s buildings. Through these murals, some of his finest work, Mukherjee found new meaning in forms. Most of these murals vividly depicted life in Shantiniketan and rural India, providing enlightening insights to foreign observers unfamiliar with village life and large communities.

Everyday life in Mukherjee's painting | Source: Tate Art Gallery

Mukherjee was well-versed in various artistic styles and admired Western art from the Renaissance era. However, his profound insights constantly led him to create art that narrates local stories. While Western art was exceptional, according to him, it lacked a connection with the Eastern lifestyle. Mukherjee aimed to bridge this gap by capturing the essence of Indian and later Nepali everyday life through his innate acumen combined with mastery over Western art styles.

He continued experimenting with forms even after he lost his eyesight. Many of his works before his blindness featured solid and spacious forms, depicting the vastness and inclusivity of everyday life. When he lost his vision, he focused more on line drawing without apparent figures. Only to keen art connoisseurs, when looking between the lines, would definite forms emerge, eloquently telling mundane stories.

Symbols by Benode Behari Mukherjee | Source: Grosvenor Gallery

Despite his physical challenges, Mukherjee never allowed them to hinder his creativity. What he could not see with his outer eyes, he envisioned with his inner sight. Art, to him, was his spiritual path, his sadhana (practice). Through art, he gained the insights needed to create more abstract forms. Abstraction was always present in many of his works, but they were less analytical and more intuitive pieces of art. Through abstraction, Mukherjee delved deeper within himself, discovering truths even fully functional eyes could not see. He used these profound insights and inner vision to explore the essence of existence that unfolded before him.