"Seeing,” John Berger famously remarked, “comes before words.” During a recent visit to Mumbai’s Project 88 gallery, one got a sense that seeing might also occasionally leave you speechless. Oscillating gracefully between playfulness and profound philosophy while, at the same time, embodying a mellifluous and ritualized minimalism, Sushen Ghosh’s (1940–2023) sculptures and preparatory sketches in the just-concluded Lyric, Still would have come as a revelation to anyone with even a passing interest in Indian art. The show, billed as the long overdue survey of an artist who seems to be one of the unsung heroes of 20th-century Bengali art, opened in Mumbai before making a final stop at Galerie 88 in Kolkata.
Explaining how the idea for Lyric, Still first came about, Sree Banerjee Goswami, founder of Project 88 gallery, says, “My mother, Supriya Banerjee, who runs Galerie 88, noticed something rather unique about Sushen’s work and began conversations with the artist.” Unfortunately, not long after work on Lyric, Still got underway, Ghosh’s health started to decline and he passed away on 18 April at the age of 83. Following his demise, Banerjee and the artist’s Santiniketan based daughter, Mohua Ghosh, embarked on a collaborative effort to bring the retrospective to life. It is no surprise that Lyric, Still felt both like an ode and a requiem. Either way, Goswami is happy that Ghosh’s art was warmly received in Mumbai and Kolkata: “It was a privilege to facilitate a fragment of the recognition this late artist deserves, as till date, Sushen Ghosh’s work has largely remained unseen by the public eye.”