Monsooning with Debarchan Rout
An oeuvre of Monsoon paintings and drawings by one of our favourite artists, Debarchan Rout. A young painter, Debarchan Rout’s artistic versatility shows in all aspects of his practice: formally, technically, content-wise and emotively.
While (western style academic) realism has been a stronghold with Rout, he has never let that become a staid habit, and his pictorial and formal universe is anyway enriched by many other diverse influences – be it Patachitra techniques and motifs or influences from other Indian folk and miniature traditions. Debarchan manages to accomplish a difficult task effectively – that of merging traditional miniature vocabulary with large format realism / abstraction.
His technical prowess is fertilised with the power of varied pictorial and narrative ideas, like folk tales, mythology, and art historical references. Rout is happy to be working in multiple realms, from works that are easily comprehensible to those that create irony and humour, from works that appeal instantly to those that are darker, quieter, and need more engagement to reveal their magic to the viewer.
