From the word go Anirban Seth, an MVA from Kolkata’s Govt. College of Art, was attracted to leather as a vehicle of his creativity. Leather, including parchment and suede, has long served as the canvas for artists in many civilisations spread across the five continents. Albrecht Durer is known to have executed some memorable images on vellum. African and Australian Aboriginal artists continue to use it as a mode of their creative expression. Indonesia, and Malayasia, used it to create aesthetic figuration. In the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, it continues to spur the highly imaginative leather puppets used in the shadow theatre of Bommalata.

Closer home, Anirban has grown up watching the batik images crafted on leather by artisans at Sriniketan, an extension of Santiniketan. Fascinated by the special effect that one cannot extract on paper or canvas, Anirban has harnessed the medium to his advantage. He uses it for the background, the texture, the mood - all with telling impact. He heightens every accidental effect through the use of leather paint on creased or crumpled sheep leather. He is building on the natural sturdiness of camel hide, and striving to enlarge its scope by using substitutes. Simultaneously his ingenuity is working on newer ways of tanning so that he can overcome the natural handicaps of the medium that develops fungus in monsoon.

For his content, Anirban initially drew upon nature as reflected in his mind’s eye. Those landscapes in bright daubs of colours were abstracts of the reality he saw around him. Essentially the 29-year- old responds to his environment. So, when nature plays havoc in the form of a ‘tsunami’, that too enters his picturespace. Increasingly he is moving towards subjects with greater relevance to his own times, as he is towards creating a pictorial language that is recognisably his own.

I am certain, he will open new horizons in his quest for a place under the sun