The Mumbai iteration of Into The Half Light And Shadow Go I, an expansive retrospective exhibition of the modern Indian artist Jogen Chowdhury curated by Jesal Thacker and Soumik Nandy Majumdar, will look at nearly 200 selected works including drawings, paintings and archives from 1955 to the present year. The show begins with its title, taken from Jibanananda Das’ 1930 Bengali poem Bodh, which speaks about a poet’s creative process. It alludes to the artist’s response to his environment at different stages in his life from the aftermath of the Partition to his upbringing in a Kolkata refugee settlement, and other cultural and political events.

Taking us through some of the works, Thacker shares, “We were keen to show his early works including academic studies, because if you look at them closely, you will see glimpses of his later works in it. His experiences of migration and refugee settlements during his childhood are etched into his psyche,” she continues, “In the work, My Brother Studying In The Hurricane, where you see his brother engulfed in darkness sitting under a lantern, you will see Jogen’s use of black and the crosshatch technique which is interesting because it comes from these early experiences and early works, when he expressed [his introspection about and response to life events].”