Paresh Maity’s water series provides a gist of his life. Rising from the rural terracottas, greens and blues of Bengal, Paresh has journeyed through the neons of global glitz. No wonder water becomes the central force and metaphor of that incredible journey! His land, river and cityscapes resonate with the spirit, taste and noise of that water which pervades his current collection; here it connects the cities and lands across which the magic of his brushes traverse.

I don’t suppose his water series, consisting predominantly of watercolour, has been previously featured in a truly substantive manner. With Noise of Many Waters, CIMA hopes to fill that void and provide a holistic overview of a subject and genre about which Paresh is truly passionate.

An award winner of the Royal Watercolour Society, London, for the best watercolour, Paresh has come a long way from the innocent days of Tamluk and Kolkata. Today, viewers across the world are bewitched by the grandeur, beauty and nuances of his artworks.

Over hundred and twenty paintings, drawings, installation, video art have been selected for this exhibition, spanning four decades of his artistic oeuvre. Noise of Many Waters highlights the watercolours which are his tour de force; from miniatures of student days to gigantic works from recent years.

This show epitomises the melancholy and the impermanence, the fears and the intense transient nature of life itself. His works portray the agony and ecstasy of an artist’s eternal journey from reality to the imaginary; his never-ending quest to capture the final magical moment when sweeping water-laden strokes and colours coalesce to create a quintessential Paresh masterpiece.

Paresh Maity lives and feels through his watercolours.

The other magical quality of Paresh’s water series is the cross-cultural dialogue and the composite world view that emerges through his art. The temples on the ghats of river Ganges in Varanasi seem to be in eternal dialogue with the Venetian churches along the canals of Venice, which in turn metamorphose into twists and turns of the placid Li river etching through the layers of strange and mysterious mountains lining the Chinese city of Guilin.

There is indeed a shift in physical contexts but the eternal spirit and role of the waterways remain unaltered. Rivers have always borne, silently, the burdens and glories of civilisations. Paresh fuses his own civilisation with that of the world’s and finds common ground to reflect upon. As a compulsive traveller, this artist needs the world to nurture and sustain his universal spirit and his desperate belief in the larger good and oneness of humanity. And it is this overriding belief in a liberal vision that lends profound depth and substance to his life and his art.

CIMA is honoured to present Noise of Many Waters — yes, a nod to the ever-relevant lines of James Joyce — as testimony to Paresh Maity’s consummate mastery over his medium and the subtle portrayal of his profound inner faith in life and its sublime harmony.

Rakhi Sarkar
Director & Curator
CIMA Gallery
Kolkata