Monwarul Islam is in awe as he glides through the galleries
Dust to Dust
As an artist, Mahbubur Rahman stands bright in the contemporary local art scene. To Rahman art is not only for visual pleasure but rather something that bears wider social responsibilities. An artist is morally bound to face the reality and respond to it.
With his observation of reality, sympathy for the working class and unyielding passion for experimentation, Rahman’s fame has crossed borders.
The artist displayed some of his latest work, along with some previous ones, at a solo exhibition in Bengal Art Lounge from April 12 to May 02.
Titled “Dust to Dust,” the exhibition is nothing short of a compulsive exposure of social anomalies and a consistent understanding of the political and personal past.
Rahman is inspired by fictions and tragic facts which are reflected in experimental installations using diverse mediums and techniques.
“Rahman represents an artist who is aware of his personal, political, social, religious and historical standing,” writes Amit Kumar Jain, an Indian art curator, who has been working with Rahman for the last few years.
In writing so, Amit does not exaggerate Rahman’s acute observation which informs and enriches each of the artworks displayed at the exhibition.
For example, he recreated the fictional character Nuroldeen and his father from Syed Shamsul Haq’s seminal play Nuroldeen-er Sarajibon. Rahman created a ‘buffalo-man’ figure in a series of works on the theme.
During the early period of British rule, farmers of Bengal had to suffer a lot as they were forced to cultivate indigo, an unprofitable crop. Farmers, as a result, had to sell their cows, belongings and even land to pay debt incurred. Later on, they had to replace buffaloes to plough the land, shared Syed Shamsul Haq, who inaugurated the exhibition.
“Nuroldeen, whose father broke his neck during ploughing, and who (Nuroldeen) raised a rebel group of around thirty thousand to fight the British, must not be forgotten,” said Rahman.
Among other installations, there were a few that are inspired by the deadly catastrophe of Rana Plaza which killed more than a thousand apparel workers.
Rahman has addressed the theme in his signature innovative way. The artist set a running hacksaw on a violin which makes a constant dizzy sound in the series installations titled “Sounds from Nowhere.” He used the very hacksaws that were used to help people out from the collapsed Rana Plaza.
Notation Reconstructed
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts organised a special solo exhibition of artist Kazi Ghiyasuddin was held from April 18 to May 28 to celebrate its 15th founding anniversary.
Kazi Ghiyasuddin, a Japan-based Bangladeshi painter, is one of the most known abstractionists whose work reflects rich imaginative power and lyrical luxuriance.
The artist displayed thirty-nine of his oil-and-watercolor artworks in the solo titled “Notation Reconstructed.”
All the paintings bear the artist’s signature drawing style where textures are created with diligent care. An avowed abstractionist, Ghiyas’s works aim to evoke moods, rather than to depict scenes or figures.
The moods are created in these paintings in colours, shades and forms that tend not to yield any particular meaning. What the paintings, in their totality, attempt to do is to open a window of imagination. For example, “Under the Sky” is one of the paintings that challenge the viewers to delve deep into layers of strokes. The sensuous lines and enigmatic forms open up a whole new window of imagination beyond the obvious.
“It is as if the artist were trying to reach back to the primal state of nature out of which everything has evolved,” wrote Kaiser Haq, poet and art-critic.
The End is Where It Begins
A retrospective displaying the journey of printmaking over the past seven decades in the country was recently held (May16 to May 30) at the National Art Gallery of Bangladesh, Shilpakala Academy.
Organised jointly by Shunno Art Space and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, the exhibition, titled “The End is Where It Begins,” had around a hundred artworks of approximately eighty printmakers of past and present.
The earliest print on display is late Shafiuddin Ahmed’s masterpiece “Homebound,” done in 1944, while many prints date up to as recent as 2015. About fifty prints were sourced from the collection of BSA as well as private collectors.
The two-week exhibition also featured printmaking demonstrations by noted Indian and Chinese printmakers.