Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

348 ART AND CRAFTS


28. In this context Mrinal Ghosh has written, ‘With the growing domination of the British these painting
styles [local painting styles] gradually ceased to exist. The British academic method infiltrated our
country within this vacuum.’[Tranls.], Bingsha Shataker Bharater Chitrakalay Adhunikatar Bibartan,
100.
29. It was stated in the education despatch of the East India Company in the year 1884, ‘Nonecan have a
stronger claim on our attention than . . . education. It is one of our sacred duties to be the means . . .
of conferring upon the natives of India these vast moral and material blessings which flow from the
general diffusion of useful knowledge . . .’ Mrinal Ghosh, Ibid., 102.
30. ‘At that time it was not in practice in Muslim society to work as blacksmiths, potters, carpenters,
weavers, fishermen etc. He (Munshi Ibrahim Khan: 1848-1933) inspired them to achieve self-
sufficiency by learning these professions and established in Mohanganj a multipurpose technical
training center. [Trans.]. D. A. Wahab, op. cit., 159.
31. The history of why and how the court art and folk art of this region came to combine the western
naturalistic method and resulted in the origination of the Dutch-Bengal, French-Bengal, Company Art,
etc. styles the extensively discussed in Tapatiguha Thakurta’s The Making of a New Indian Art, Partha
Mitter’s Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, Asok K. Bhattacharya’s Banglar Chitrakala, Sovon
Som’s Shilpashiksha O Uponibeshik Bharat, and Mrinal Ghosh’s Bingsho Shataker Bharater
Chitrakalay Adhunikatar Bibartan, etc. books.
32. In this context artist Quamrul Hassan has said, ‘The name of Abul Kasem was known in Muslim
society before the artist Zainul Abedin. It can also be said that the artist Abul Kasem was the first
Muslim in those days involved in book illustration.’ [Trans.]. S. A. Huq, Quamrul Hassan: Jiban O
Karma, (Dhaka 1998), 179. It can be learnt from the memoirs written by artist Kazi Abul Kasem that,
when Zainul Abedin was a student of the First Year of Art School, Abul Kasem regularly drew pictures
for Alokmala, Alokmanjari etc. text books. Zainul Smriti, op. cit., 57.
33. D. A. Wahab, op. cit., 3, 171, 461, 556.
34. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14. Zainul’s own admission on this matter can be found in the article entitled
‘Shilpacharya Zainul Abediner Shange Ekti Shakshatkar,’ by N. Islam in Zainul’s Smriti, op. cit., 103.
35. Nisar Hossain, ‘Chitrakala Bibhager Sekal Ekal,’ in the publication entitled Drawing and Painting
Bibhag, published on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of the Art Institute, (Dhaka 1998).
th
36. P. K. Bose, op. cit., 67-68.
37. In this context Zainul has said, ‘I liked the paintings of the Impressionists best and they influenced me
to a certain extent. I received the gold medal in the Nikhil Bharat [All-India] Painting Exhibition held
in Delhi in the year 1938 for some paintings of the Brahmaputra River, those paintings were in the
Impressionist method.’ [Trans.], N. Islam, op. cit., 29.
38. Sovon Som, op. cit., 92.
39. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14.
40. Sovon Som, op. cit., 95.
41. Arun Ghose, Art of Bengal 1850-1950, (Calcuta 1997), 31.
42. Gautam Das, Banglay Shilpa Charchar Uttaradhikar, (Kolkata 2000), 93.
43. Loc.cit.
44. M. Ghosh, op. cit., 255.
45. S. Som, op. cit., 95.
46. Ibid., 168.
47. Sunil Kumar Pal, Kichhu Smritikatha Kichhu Shilpabhabna, (Calcutta 1998), 64. The scholarship of
Manindrabhushan Gupta is evidenced in his book entitled Shilpe Bharat O Bahirbharat, (Calcutta 1975).
48. Author’s interview of artist Safiuddin Ahmed, 15 July 2005.
49. In this context Nandalal Bose has said, ‘Previously we painted pictures by reading the satras and the
Puranas. Abanibabu taught as by employing pundits. We got the ideas from books. However, here the
mentor was the natural beauty of the Padma and its interpretation was that of the Visva Kabi [Universal
Poet Rabindranath Tagore] himself.’ [Trans.] Panchanan Mandal, Bharat Shilpi Nandalal, 1st Volume,
(Bolpur 1982), 385.
50. In the years 1921-22 Stella Kramrisch lectured at Santiniketan on Gothic art to Cubism, Mr. Ghosh,
op. cit., 116.
51. Ibid., 229 and Prabir Kumar Debnath, Rabitirthey Bideshi, (Kolkata 2000), 33.

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 349


52. Sovon Som, op. cit., 94-95.
53. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14.
54. Mr. Ghosh, op. cit., 168.
55. Quamrul Hassan, ‘Amar Master Saheb,’ Zainul Smriti, op. cit., 47-48.
56. The proof of this can be found in the autobiographical book Chhabir Chashmay, (Calcutta 1995) by
the legendary artist of the academic method of that age, Hemendranath Majumdar. Here he severely
criticized the growth of the new trend in art and the great enthusiasm about it among art lovers.
57. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14.
58. Loc. cit.
59. Nazrul Islam, Zainul Abedin Tanr Kaj O Katha, op. cit., 29.
60. ‘A student of the final year Zainul Abedin was appointed in the post of Abdul Moin . . . by Principal
Mukul Chandra Dey. This is a memorable event in the Government Art School of Kolkata.’ [Trans.].
Gautam Das, op. cit., 181. ‘As a student of the fifth year in 1937, Zainul was appointed as teacher
against a vacant post of the Art School through special arrangements made by the Education
Department.’ [Trans.]. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14. However, the fact that even during the British Period the
Bengalis were able to give recognition to talent is brilliantly exemplified by the Art College of Mukul
Dey and by Zainul Abedin.’ [Trans.], Nazrul Islam, op. cit., 28.
61. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 14.
62. In this context the advice given to one of the students by Abedin was, ‘Not feeling how it is to ride on
a boat, without being rocked, son, how will you understand the boat. And how will you draw a picture
of a boat.’ [Trans.]. Keramat Mowla, ‘Apan Manush,’ Zainul Smriti, op. cit., 89.
63. In the forties the artist Somnath Hore (from 1945 to 1947) and in the sixties Artist Rafiqun Nabi (1959-
1964) were students of Zainul. Both of them have expressed this in personal discussions with the author.
64. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 15.
65. Nisar Hossain, ‘Zainul Abedin O Bangladesher Chitrakala Andolon,’ Prasanga, Issue 3, (Chittagong,
Bhadra 1394 Bengali Year), 17. That these were drawn in the studio can be ascertained from the
written statement of the eye witness Shawkat Osman, ‘The birthing room of the series of drawings
mentioned was the drawing-dining-cum-studio space of number fourteen.’ [Trans.]. Shawkat Osman,
‘Biswa Bhramyaman Gramyajan Zainul Abedin,’ Zainul Smriti, op. cit., 39.
66. S. Som, op. cit., 106.
67. N. Islam, op. cit., 13.
68. M. Ghosh, op. cit., 255.
69. S. Som, op. cit., 95. Renowned art critic Sovon Som of India has written, ‘These are amazing drawings
free from the obscurity of allegory, the mystery of symbols, the complexity of style which have no
comparison in this country.’ [Trans.].
70. Ibid., 106.
71. In Kolkata on 10 and 11 October, 1944 the first Provincial Conference on Political Literature was
organized by National Book Agency. The presence of Zainul Abedin at the conference with eminent
personalities with leftist oriented ideals such as Manik Bandopadhyaya, Satyen Majumdar and others
was published of special importance in Janajuddha, the journal of the Communist Party. Vide: Samir
Das Gupta, Gana Andoloner Chhapakhana Communist Party O Samadarshi SambadSangbadpatrer
Kramaparjay, (Calcutta 1996), 131. ‘In the beginning of nineteen forty five when the war was nearing
the end, the daily People’s War presented Zainul as a member of the anti-fascist writers and artists
association.’ [Trans.], S. Som, op. cit., 106. ‘In the period between 1944-1945 Zainul was invited to
every meeting and function of the anti-fascist writers and artists association and people’s theatre
association.’ [Trans.]. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 17.
72. Nisar Hossain, op. cit., 9.
73. S. Osman, op. cit., 39.
74. N. Islam, op. cit., 76.
75. Humayun Azad, Shilpakalar Bimanabikikaran O Anyanya Prabandha, (Dhaka 1988), 67.
76. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 17.
77. Artist Aminul Islam has written, ‘At the end of May 1947 I went to Kolkata to get admission to the
Art School . ... It was probably on 7 June that I went to the Art School to sit for the admission test ....
Right the next morning, mustering my courage I went to Abedin Saheb’s house and spoke to him ... .
He too like Safiuddin Saheb let me know – “We are making preparations to go to Dhaka . ... If Pakistan

350 ART AND CRAFTS


is created we will establish an Art School after we go to Dhaka.” [Trans.], Aminul Islam,
Bangladesher Shilpa Andoloner Panchash Bachhar, (Dhaka 2003), 24-25. In the words of Artist
Quamrul Hassan, ‘Nearly every evening we had a meeting at the residence of Salimullah Fahmi Saheb
... . At that age I was not capable of understanding all the complications, I only understood that
Pakistan would be created and an Art School must be established in Dhaka.’ [Trans.], S. A. Huq,
Quamrul Hassan: Jiban O Karma, op. cit., 59.
78. N. Islam, op. cit., 76.
79. To formally introduce Zainul to the students and teachers of the Dhaka University in January 1948
along with a discussion by Zainul an exhibition was arranged with 14 Famine sketches at the Fazlul
Haque Hall. Besides this, on the advise of the Provincial Health Minister, Habibullah Bahar
Chowdhury on the occasion of the 1st Independence Day of Pakistan in 14 August 1948 an exhibition
was organized at the Governor’s House featuring 100 posters executed by Abedin with the assistance
of Quamrul Hassan on the subject of the Muslim conquest of Delhi to the establishment of Pakistan
by Jinnah. The main intention behind these deeds was to present Zainul’s merit and the importance of
art to the higher circle of the Government and important persons. For detailed information on this
subject, vide, S. A. Huq, Zainul Abedin, op. cit., 17-18.
80. S. A. Huq, ibid., 18.
81. Loc. cit.
82. “In 1950 under the leadership of Zainul Abedin the ‘Dhaka Art Group’ was formed. While preparing
for the exhibition this group created a widespread response among the educated and conscious
citizens,” [Trans.] loc. cit.
83. S. Amjad Ali, Painters of Pakistan, (Islamabad 2000), 37-38.
84. Ibid., 36, 38.
85. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 18. In this context the world renowned critic Erich Newton has written, ‘. . . in
these . . . an unprecedented integration of the east and the west has occurred.’ N. Islam, op. cit., 13.
86. S. A. Huq, op. cit. In this context Nisar Hossain has written, ‘. . . Another special event was his travels
in Europe (1951-52). Probably this was the first time he could comprehend the appreciation of his own
dress [identity].’ [Trans.]. Prasanga, op. cit., 12.
87. In this context Zainul said, ‘The movement of the people for the language of the Bengalis, for the culture
of the Bengalis perhaps also influenced me subconsciously ...’ [Trans.], N. Islam, op. cit., 29.
88. Ibid., 17.
89. After the Art Institute was moved to Segun Bagicha, in 1954 for the first time an exhibition of folk art
was held in this country. After this the Art Institute moved to its own building in Shahbag and in the
year 1958 for the second time a folk art exhibition was organized. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 20.
90. N. Islam, op. cit., 106.
91. In an interview given in 1974 Zainul said, ‘. . . most artists of this trend went abroad at a somewhat
immature age . . . the movements of painting that they saw, were transfixed in their eyes . . . the more
mature they will become, . . . they will be able to know their own heritage and their own people and
will also be able to depict them in their painting,’ N. Islam, ibid., 30.
92. Ibid., 31.
93. Ibid., 18-19.
94. Asok Bhattacharya, Kalchetanar Shilpi, (Kolkata 2003), 28.
95. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 22.
96. A. Bhattacharya, op. cit., 28.
97. Aare latai patachitra. In this type of patachitra the stories are drawn and exhibited horizontally. Dr.
Dipak Kumar Bara Ponda, Patua Samskriti Parampara O Paribartan, (Calcutta 1999), 48.
98. A. Bhattacharya, op. cit., 30.
99. This kind of art has been defined as, ‘Interactive Art: work of art intended for the viewer’s direct
participation,’ in Uta Grosenick and Burkhard Riemschneider (eds.), Art Now, (London 2000), 561.
100. This kind of art has been defined as, ‘Installation: a work of art that integrates the exhibition space as
an aesthetic component,’ loc. cit.
101. N. Islam, op. cit., 47, 79.
102. In 1959 he was awarded the medal Hilal-I-Imtiaz by the Pakistan Government. S. A. Huq, op. cit., 21;
in February 1971 in Mymensingh while delivering a speech at a public meeting, he announced his
rejection of this award. N. Islam, op. cit., 80.

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 351


103. S. A. Huq, op.cit., 23.
104. In December 1975 cancer was detected in his lungs. Ibid., 24.
105. He breathed his last on 28 May 1976, Friday at 9 in the morning. A. Matin, op.cit., 85. He was laid to
rest in the Dhaka University Mosque premises adjacent to the Institute of Fine Art beside the grave of
Kazi Nazrul Islam.
106. “He executed the last painting of his life” The Face of Two Youth in brush lines of black ink (on 7
May) while he was in hospital in his sick-bed. N. Islam, op.cit., 81.
107. A. Bhattacharya, op.cit., 39.
108. S. Som, op.cit., 120.
109 Quamrul Hassan, “Amar Katha: Bangladesher Shilpa Andolon”, Gonoshahitya; Editor Abul Hasnat,
Year 3: issue no. 6, (Dhaka, May, 1975), 12.
110 Mizanur Rahman, “Quamrul: Ekjon Bangalir Upakkhyan” (Shompadoker Korcha), Mizanur Rahmaner
Troimashik Patrika, Editor: Mizanur Rahman, Year 3: Issue no.: 4, (Dhaka, October 1987 – March
1988), 125.
111 Nazrul Islam, Shamakalin Shilpa O Shilpi (Dhaka, 1995), 127.
112 Nayeem Gauhar, “Guru Darshane Patua”, Sangbad, (Dhaka, 2 February, 1991), 6.
113 Nazrul Islam, op.cit. 125.
114 Wahidul Haque, “Kokhono Chharenni Tini Desher Atmake”, Quamrul Hassan, (ed.) Abul Hasnat,
(Dhaka1990), page 24-25.
115 Syed Manzoorul Islam, “Oitijya ebong Quamrul Hassaner Chitrakala”, ibid., 61.
116 Ibid,, 68
117 Syed Azizul Huq, Quamrul Hassan: Jibon o Karma, (Dhaka, 1998), 7.
118 Quamrul Hassan, “Amar Kichhu Katha”, Atalantik, (ed.): Khaleda Edib Choudhury, Year 6: Issue no.
1, (Dhaka, October-December, 1982), 50.
119 Qayyum Choudhury, “Quamrul Bhai”, Quamrul Hassan, (Dhaka, 1990) op.cit., 96.
120 Syed Manzoorul Islam, op.cit. 68.
121 Nurjahan Murshid, “Quamrul Hassaner Shakshatkar,” Ekal, Nurjahan Murshid (ed.), Year 1: Issue no.
1, (Dhaka, August, 1986), 29.
122 Loc.cit.
123 Quamrul Hassan, “Amar Kichhu Kata” op.cit., 24.
124. Sharif Ashrafuzzaman, Kimbadantir Canvasey S. M.Sultan, (Narail 1997), 91.
125. Inam Ahmed Chowdhury, “Mahashilpi Sultan”, Dainik Prothom Alo, Sahitya Samayiki, (15 August
2003), 23.
126. S. Amjad Ali, ‘Purbo Banger Ek Tarun Shilpi, in Syed Manzoorul Islam, Subir Chowdhury (ed.),
S.M. Sultan Smarakgrantha, (Dhaka 1995), 51.
127. Shahaduzzaman, Katha Parampara, (Dhaka 1997), 14.
128. Loc.cit.
129. Loc.cit.
130. Jalal Uddin Ahmed, Art in Pakistan, (Karachi 1954), First Edition, 80-82.
131. Nazrul Islam, ‘Sultaner Shilpakarma’, S.M. Sultan Smarakgrantha, op.cit., 57.
132. J.U.Ahmed, op.cit., 81.
133. S.M.Ali, op.cit.,54.
134. Mahbub Jamal Shamim, “Sultanke Amjad Dekha”, Shilparup, 1st Year, 1st Issue, (January-March
2004), 22.
135. Shahaduzzaman, op.cit.,16.
136. Ibid., 17.
137. Abdur Razzaque, ‘Sultaner Chhabi’, S.M.Sultan Smarakgrantha, op.cit., 13.
138. Shahaduzzaman, op.cit., 13.
139. Loc.cit., 19.
140. Loc.cit., 21.
141. Abul Mansur, ‘S M Sultan: Srijanshilata O Prantik Manoser Daye’, S.M. Sultan Smarakgranatha,
op.cit, 183.
142. Shahaduzzaman, op.cit., 23.

352 ART AND CRAFTS

































pl. 8.1 (top left) Zainul Abedin, Bathing, oil on canvas, 1976

pl. 8.2 (top right) Zainul Abedin, Santhal Couple, watercolor, 1951

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 353





























pl. 8.3 (top left) Zainul Abedin, Still Life, oil, 1948

pl. 8.4 (top middle) Zainul Abedin, Girl Reading in a Chair, oil on card board, 1948

pl. 8.5 (top right) Zainul Abedin, Two Women, gouache,1953
pl. 8.6 (bottom) Zainul Abedin, The Struggle, oil on canvas, 1976

354 ART AND CRAFTS





















































pl. 8.7 (top) Zainul
Abedin, Boat,
watercolor, 1958
pl. 8.8 (bottom) Zainul
Abedin, Untitled
Abstract Composition,
oil on canvas, 1972

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 355





















































pl. 8.9 (top) Quamrul
Hassan, Woman and
Tree, watercolor, 1987
pl. 8.10 (bottom)
Quamrul Hassan,
Mother and Child,
watercolor, 1950

356 ART AND CRAFTS














































pl. 8.11 (top left)
Quamrul Hassan, Open
Breasted Two Women
and Cow, pastel, 1981

pl. 8.12 (top right)
Quamrul Hassan, Three
Women-1, oil on
masonite, 1955

pl. 8.13 (bottom)
Quamrul Hassan,
Happy Return, oil, 1975

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 357


































pl. 8.14 (top left) Quamrul Hassan, Peep, gouache, 1967

pl. 8.15 (top right) Safiuddin Ahmed, Lemonade Stand-1, oil, 1954

pl. 8.16 (bottom) Safiuddin Ahmed, The Fishing Net, etching aquatint, 1964

358 ART AND CRAFTS













































pl. 8.17 (top left)
Safiuddin Ahmed, A
Book Stall in Paris, oil,
1960

pl. 8.18 (top right)
Safiuddin Ahmed, The
Sun, Tree and Girl, oil,
1989
pl. 8.19 (bottom)
Safiuddin Ahmed,
Sound of Blue-2, oil,
2002

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 359






























143. Ibid., 16, 21.





















pl. 8.20 (top) Safiuddin
Ahmed, The Sound of
Water, etching mixed
media, 1985

pl. 8.21 (bottom) S.M.
Sultan, Landscape-1,
oil, 1951

360 ART AND CRAFTS

















































pl. 8.22 (top left) S.M.
Sultan, Cutting Fish-2,
oil, 1989
pl. 8.23 (top right) S.M.
Sultan, First Plantation,
oil, 1975

pl. 8.24 (bottom) S.M.
Sultan, Harvesting
Paddy-1, oil, 1987

9




SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS

a. Hamidur Rahman
Moinuddin Khaled

Bangladesh was under colonial rule in different phases of history and therefore is a
country of mixed-culture. Thoughts and perceptions of the country’s prehistoric
peoples integrated with different cultures of the Buddhist, Hindu, Mughal and British
periods to create this sphere of mixed culture. The center of this cultural hybridization
is the city of Dhaka. The history of its long past bears the testimony of the cohabitation
of people of different religions, faiths and cultures. Dhaka was buzzing with various
cultural activities since the beginning of the twentieth century. Individual and
institutional patronization plays a special role in the pursuit of culture and progressive
thinkers broaden the path for cultural pursuits. Mirza Fakir Mohammad and Mirza
Abdul Quader Sardar belonged to the aristocracy of Dhaka. The two brothers reared a
special love for art and literature. Being dwellers of old Dhaka, the Mughal elitist
ambience on the one hand and the traditional Bengali lifestyle on the other, created the
cultural atmosphere of the Mirza family. One of the pioneers in the new trend of art
that emerged in this country following the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 was
the artist Hamidur Rahman of the Mirza family.
How a person turns into an artist cannot be determined by mathematical calculations.
However, the potential of becoming an artist can be identified by the country, time, fig. 9.1
society, family and genetic inheritance of a person. Hamidur Rahman was born on 1st Hamidur Rahman
September 1928 in an aristocratic family of Ashek Lane, Dhaka, famed as the mystery
land of the East situated on the bank of the river Buriganga. He was the sixth among
the nine children of his father Mirza Fakir Mohammad and mother Jamila Khatun. He
was named Bashir Ahmed after birth and later it was changed to Hamid Ahmed.
Finally, the artist called himself Hamidur Rahman according to his own wishes.
The cultural atmosphere of the family was created with multifaceted cultural activities,
music and poetry was added with the film culture. Rahman’s uncle, the famous Quader
Sardar established the Lion Cinema Hall. A respectable Muslim family playing a role
in the development of cinema was undoubtedly an amazing instance of progressiveness
in those days. Hamid’s elder brother Nasir Ahmed used to recite poetry wonderfully;
second brother Nazir Ahmed earned reputation as a radio broadcaster. He used to

362 ART AND CRAFTS


conduct the Bengali program ‘Anjuman’ from BBC. FDC’s founder-director, a famous
personality Nazir Ahmed assisted Fateh Lohani in making his films Asiya and Aakash
ar Mati. Besides, he played a role in producing the country’s first short film- Salaamat.
Hamid’s younger brother Sayeed Ahmed practiced playing the sitar with deep devotion
in his early life and later earned fame as a playwright.
It was not only the family ambience, the traditional art of old Dhaka also considerably
influenced the child Hamid. In a write-up read on the occasion of his exhibition in
1959 Hamid says, ‘In various areas of old Dhaka groups of craftsmen displayed
different skills in their artistic creations. In my childhood, I would go to those areas
not far from our house. The most delicate works on conch shells by the Sankharis and
the designs of the saris by the weavers attracted me very much. Besides, the forms of
toy elephants and tigers also fascinated me. To tell the truth, those color schemes and
designs have been the source of inspiration of many famous artists of Bengal. 1
The family atmosphere and the visual arts of the city of his birth, Dhaka, first sowed
the seeds of art in Hamid’s mind. But the inclination to create was first manifested not
visually but with words; not in pictures, but in poems. In his teens Hamid set his mind
to composing literature. Later on, in the intimacy of his friendship with poet Shamsur
Rahman and artist Aminul Islam he left poetry for paintings.
He studied till class VII at St. Gregory’s School. Passing the entrance examination in
1944 from East Bengal Institute, he studied for two years at Dhaka College. Being
residents of the same locality, a bond of friendship grew between Aminul Islam and
Hamidur Rahman. Thus, both were admitted to Dhaka’s Fine Art Institute established
in 1948 and later on these two classmates played an epoch making role in the history
of art practice in this country.
The majority of the artists and litterateurs of this country became conscious of
themselves in the decade of the forties. In the troubled times during and after the war
human minds received extraordinary experiences and creative beings wanted to
project the stirrings of the soul through creation. At the end of the decade of the 1940s
artists, poets, litterateurs built a strong circle of mutual friendship. A group of artists-
litterateurs feeling an identical unified strength between themselves called themselves
Saptarshimandal. The ‘saints’ of this mandala were Aminul Islam, Borhanuddin Khan
Jahangir, Alauddin Al Azad, Shamsur Rahman, Hamidur Rahman, Akhtaruzzaman
and Hasan Hafizur Rahman. Hamidur Rahman deeply felt the significance of the
association. Saptarshimandal is a main source of his self-discovery. In later times,
reminiscing in this regard the artist says, ‘The self-initiated activities of 1948 may
seem as disconnected occurances, but they were not disconnected. An era like the
Kallol Yuga was created. Many of us together made a circle. We used to meet on an
abandoned barge at Sadarghat. It created an opportunity for the enthusiasts of poetry,
drama, painting and related matters to get together.’ 2
Before admission to the Institute of Fine Art, in 1948, Hamidur Rahman tried his hand
in drawing and painting by copying pictures printed in different newspapers. Works of

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 363


different artists belonging to the Bengal School inspired him. Paintings by
Rabindranath Tagoree specially moved him. He followed with great sincerety Zainul’s
watercolor lessons at the Institute. After two-years education in art at Dhaka Hamid
went to Paris, the Mecca of art education. He took a short course from 1950 to 1951
at the famous school of art in Paris, the Ecole des Beaux Art. Here the subject of his
study was mural. He took lessons from the famous teacher Pierre Rodin. Along with
the prescribed syllabus of the Institute, experience of viewing the works of world
famous artists at museums and exchange of ideas with meritorious classmates
enriched him as a person. After partition, no other artist from this region had gone to
the west to study art before Hamid. His classmates in Paris were Akbar Padamsi,
Laxman Pai, Nird Majumder, Paritosh Sen, Raja and others. That there is reasonable
grounds for a comparative study of Hamid’s works with his classmates’ may easily be
assumed by an inquisitive researcher of art.
Hamid went to London in 1951 and was admitted to the Central School of Arts and
Design the same year where he obtained graduation in 1956. During the summer
vacation of 1953 he went to Florence and completed a short course on mural art at the
world famous institute ‘Academy de Belle Arte’. During 1958-59, he remained attached
to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, USA as a research scholar.
Even as a student, Hamidur Rahman attracted attention of art connoisseurs in different
group exhibitions at home and abroad. Although mainly a mural artist, yet the number
of his works in oil and other media is considerable, too. In the first exhibition of
‘Dhaka Art Group’ held in 1951, 16 of his works in the realistic genre were displayed.
Even then, he demonstarted his skill in the media of watercolor, oil color, woodcut etc.
Moreover, he took part in other group exhibitions with the highest number of art works
among his contemporary artists. Not only did he produce art works in great numbers,
he felt the strength of each different medium and produced a variety of work.
Hamidur Rahman’s works deserve special mention among those who broke with the
realistic art form in the decade of the 1950s. He is one of the first who began to work
in the abstract trend. In 1956, Hamidur Rahman’s solo exhibition was arranged at the
Dhaka USIS building with the initiative of the Pakistan-American society. In this
exhibition were displayed his abstract works stressing colors, lines and forms in the
non-representational trend. This exhibition bears special significance in the history of
art of this country because by his efforts in the abstract trend the artist diversified and
broadened the country’s periphery of fine art. In 1959 the artist’s second solo
exhibition was held at Karachi’s Art Council at the initiative of ‘Pakistan-Austria
Cultural Association’. Besides, his solo exhibition was held again in Dhaka in 1964,
again in Karachi in 1970 and in 1973 in London. He had numerous shows held in
Europe, the United States, Canada, India and Pakistan at different times. Especially
mentionable are the artist’s solo exhibitions held in 1982 in Ottawa, Canada and in
1984 in Dhaka. The artist has composed 11000 sq.ft. of mural on different well-known
exhibitable walls at home and abroad.

364 ART AND CRAFTS


Hamidur Rahman has made an unforgettable place in
the history of Bangladesh by designing the Shaheed
Minar. Moreover, his artworks brought him many
awards at home and abroad. The National Award in
1972 and first prize in the fifth Teheran Biennale can be
specially mentioned. The Government of Pakistan
decorated him with ‘President Award of Pride of
Performance for Paintings’ in 1970. The government of
Bangladesh honored him with ‘Ekushey Award’in 1980.
Hamidur Rahman pursued teaching besides his practice
of art. He was a professor at Canada’s Macdonald
Cartier Polytechnic, Montreal from 1975 to 1985.
Hamidur Rahman married Ashraf Jahan in 1960. They
have two sons, and a daughter. He suffered from heart
disease twice in 1987. On November 19, 1988 he
suffered a heart attack for the last time and passed away.
Hamidur Rahman is one of the leading artist of the
abstract trend of this country. On the one hand he used
the dynamics of different colors to represent the
fig. 9.2 Cyclone, oil, emotions and, on the other, he created figurative paintings and murals dominated by
1973 forms with clear contour lines (fig. 9.2). In the artist’s exhibition of 1956 the technical
aspect of his paintings drew the attention of critics, ‘The thickness and weight of oil
color seems most necessary for the thought process and subject matter and the force
of application in the artist’s work. It has been given the freedom to express its own
character by being applied by the spatula, cloth and hand. However he has no
prejudice in using the brush. But not only the brush, starting from ordinary press ink,
sand, sawdust, lime, bran and even nails have helped him to create his paintings.’ 3
The traits of the expressionist style is apparent in Hamidur Rahman’s works, specially
in the fifties and sixties. The agitations present in young hearts are diminished with
maturity, maybe it evolves and matures in a different way. The preoccupations of his
times had emerged in the artist’s refinement of abstract paintings although Hamid
returned again to the figurative. However, his work remains uniquely stylized and is
in no way realistic. Yet, comments of the critics about his mental inclination in the
decade of the sixties which were manifested only in lines, colors and forms deserves
mention here, ‘Rahman, the artist of inner reality, is still probing to fathom the depth
that touches the bottom of consciousness. And from this investigation he has found an
4
excellent form that is exclusively his own.’ [Trans.]
Hamidur Rahman’s artistic-consciousness was alert with nationalistic feelings.
Although he carried on experimentation with European trends of art, he expressed
artistic reaction on contemporary events of the country. He had an intimate quest
which began in his early youth when he was a 22-year old student at Dhaka’s Institute

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 365


of Fine Art. He wrote then, ‘I can clearly visualize
the coming days of our art school. All civilized
nations of the world will come to know our name
one day. Our art and civilization will inspire them.
We shall no more lag behind in thinking and
painting in our own trend. Now our time has
5
come.’ [Trans.]
Hamidur Rahman could not accept the idea of art as
a means to the luxuries in life, livelihood, and
fame. He wanted to remain committed to society.
As the eternal human struggle for life and love
remained the subject of his art, so he also
represented the contemporary political events in his
paintings. The greatest example of his nationalistic
commitment is the Shaheed Minar (figs. 9.3a,
9.3b). After obtaining his degree on fine arts in
London in 1956, he came back to his country. This
is when the government took the initiative to
immortalize the sacrifice of the language martyrs of 1952. Hamidur Rahman an artist
committed to the nation prepared a model and 52 designs on paper for constructing
this Shaheed Minar on the advice of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and PWD Chief
Engineer, Jabbar. Other artists and architects also participated in this competition with
their models and drawings. Hamidur Rahman’s design was nominated in the
competition by the committee constituted of Greek architect Doxiades as the chairman
of the jury, chief engineer Mr. Jabbar, Zainul Abedin and a few government
bureaucrats. A Dutch architect named Jean Dulurand residing in this country co-
operated with the artist in implementing the design of the Shaheed Minar. The work fig. 9.3a (top) The
began in November 1957 and 21st February was observed in 1958 at the incomplete original model and
Minar. By then construction of the base, stage and three columns of the Minar was design of the Shaheed
Minar presented in 1956
completed. Besides, artist
Hamidur Rahman had fig. 9.3b (bottom) The
executed one thousand new design for the
square feet of mural Shaheed Minar to
commemorating the replace the one
Language Movement (fig. demolished by the
9.4). The themes of the Pakistani forces, by
murals were the eternal Hamidur Rahman and
nature of Bengal and the architect Zafar,
photograph after Rafiqul
rebellious expression of Islam, Bangla Bhasha,
Bengalis in the Language Sahitya O Sangskritik
Movement and other Andolon, (Dhaka 2006)

366 ART AND CRAFTS


struggles. Hamid’s friend the sculptor
Novera Ahmed also worked with him on the
Shaheed Minar. Many evidenced this at the
time. In course of discussion with this writer
artist Aminul Islam informed him that
Novera’s contribution in the planning of the
Shaheed Minar was no less important.
However, from the writings of Hamid it is
known that Novera constructed three
sculptures for the Shaheed Minar. Hamid
received only a meager amount of his due
remuneration for the Shaheed Minar. The
work of the Shaheed Minar suddenly
stopped with the promulgation of martial
law by Ayub Khan in 1956. Hamid-Novera
did not even get the time to remove the construction materials which they kept in a
temporary shelter where they also stayed during construction of the Shaheed Minar, as
nobody dared to go there evading the army vigil. In 1963-64, efforts were once again
made to fulfill the original design of the Shaheed Minar. However, because of
bureaucratic complexities and the ill motivation of the government, that effort also
died down. In 1971, the Shaheed Minar was razed to the ground by cannon balls the
Pakistan. occupation forces. After Independence, in 1972 the reconstruction of the
Shaheed Minar was started anew to observe the first 21st February on liberated soil.
But that work too did not proceed very far. Meanwhile, a mishap occurred. The mural
that had remained intact even during the War of Liberation was whitewashed, nobody
knew on whose orders. It is as though art was raped and murdered. Later on, five
columns were constructed at the Shaheed Minar. The highest one is bent, symbolizing
fig. 9.4 (top) Hamidur Mother Bengal, on either side are her four immortal children. This is what the Shaheed
Rahman painting the Minar expresses. Though the master plan Hameed-Novera visualized to immortalize
mural at the Shaheed the language martyrs’ sacrifice was not limited to representing the mother language
Minar, 1958 through architectural art but included sound and light, sheets of glass, rays of sunlight
through the sheets of glass fountains etc. It is yet to be realized.
fig. 9.5 (bottom) Mural
at the Dhaka University Hamidur Rahman’s competence is most apparent in murals, frescos, or wall paintings.
Central Library, fresco Murals are usually created on public buildings or installations. Hamidur Rahman
bueno, 1957 executed two frescoes of two different types on the walls of the Dhaka University

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 367


Library at the end of the 1950s. With a few natural
elements, he composed frescoes of fishermen and
fisherwomen on the lower wall of the library (fig. 9.5).
The frescoes are so highly raised from the surface that
you can easily feel the weight of sculpture in them.
This sculptural quality, of course, is absent in the work
titled Borak and Duldul on the western wall of the
periodicals section of the library. In this work the
geometry of straight lines divide the space to give
artistic refinement to the structural form of the horse.
On the other hand, a strong influence of the Cubic
style of art is noticeable in the fresco depicting the
fishing community.
In the mural the artist executed in tempera at Doyson
Club in Montreal, Canada the eternal image of
nature is represented with a romantic ambience in
simplified forms and vibrant coats of color. And in
the mural titled Bangladesh Riverscape at the
Commonwealth Institute of London the artist
painted the veiw of rivers and boats of eternal Bengal with layers of colors without fig. 9.6 Borsha-4, oil,
giving importance to the sculptural quality. Both these works were, of course, 1984
constructed in the mid-1970s. This was probably the time when the artist
remembered his country with a degree of nostalgic feeling.
Hamid’s art has graduated from the representational to metaphoric. The ever stirring
sense of commitment in his blood inspired him to paint 1952 and 1971. The War of
Liberation haunted him repeatedly. He painted humans lying at the mass execution
ground, the raped women, and also the victory procession. He wanted to create a heart-
rending gesture of 1971 with a few lines and soft clusters of colors in a graphic serenity.
Reaching the fag end of his life Hamidur Rahman turned romantic. He painted the
moon-struck profile of wide-eyed women in the bright blue water flooded by
moonlight (fig. 9.6). His paintings have all along been two-dimensional. By
complementing man and woman, he created the metaphor of love and empathy. In
love, man and woman merge into one body. Often symbols are added to Hamid’s
themes. Man and woman gazing in bewilderment holding fish in their hands.
Perhaps he discovered the symbol of love and fertility in woman. Somewhere a
primitive passion is active at the very depth of Hamid’s paintings. Some four years
before his death artist Hamidur Rahman drew the conclusion to the messages in
his paintings saying, ‘Who I am and which society I belong to is the most
6
important consideration.’ [Trans.]
Translated by Madan Shahu, Senior Assistant Editor, The Daily Star, Dhaka

368 ART AND CRAFTS





b. Mohammad Kibria
Mahmudul Hossain

Short biography
Mohammad Kibria was born on 1 January 1929 at Birbhum, West Bengal, India. He
entered the Calcutta Art School (College of Arts and Crafts) in 1945 after finishing
school. His teachers in the art school included Ramendranath Chakravorty, Zainul
Abedin, Anwarul Huq, Manindra Bhushan Gupta, Rishen Chakravarty and Basanta
Ganguly among others. He graduated from the Art School in 1950.
Kibria came to Dhaka in 1951 and joined the Nawabpur Government High School as
drawing teacher. He started teaching at the Government Art Institute (now Institute of
Fine Art, Dhaka University) in 1954. In 1959, he did his higher studies in painting and
printmaking at Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music in Japan. He continued to
teach at the Institute of Fine Art from 1954 and in 1987 and when it was affiliated as
an institute of Dhaka University, he was appointed professor in the Printmaking
department. Kibria formally retired from this position in 1997.
Exhibitions, awards and honors
One-man shows of Mohammad Kibria were held in 1981, 1993 and 2000 in Dhaka.
Exhibitions of his works were held abroad in Japan, Pakistan, India and former
Yugoslavia. Apart from these, his works were shown in the national art exhibitions,
Asian Art Biennales and numerous other group shows.
He was awarded the first prize in painting in the first and the second National Art
Exhibitions of Pakistan in 1957 and 1959. He was awarded the Starlem Award in the
first Young Artists’ Exhibition in Tokyo in 1959 and in 1960, he won an award in the
all-Japan print exhibition. Kibria received the President’s Award for his special
contribution in fine arts in 1969. He received Ekushey Padak in 1983 and
fig. 9.7 Independence Day Award in 1997.
Mohammad Kibria Development as an artist, influences and analysis of art works
Kibria, perhaps, has a mindset which is compatible with the 20th century metropolitan
sensibility and taste. He is an introspective, personal artist. His art works, paintings
and prints, are quiet, almost silent. His emotions are controlled - his expressions are
subtle, formal. Loneliness, rootlessness, alienation and erosion are continuously
flowing within his feelings. These feelings fight relentlessly with the simple romantic
nature of Bengal, flickers of hope and lyricism on the canvas of Kibria. At the end, his
works are the depiction of a unique urban ritual to many viewers. Resolving spatial
issues intellectually, creating the possibility of the third dimension in the two
dimensional pictorial surface, giving self-born lives to color, and sometimes intense
sensual presence of lines- all these combine into a subjective lyrical flow; this is how
he progresses with his works.

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 369


Kibria has worked in the oil color and printmaking media. In printmaking he has
mainly worked in lithograph and etching. He had learned woodcut in Japan and had
also worked there in watercolor. Kibria is an adept craftsman in using the
characteristics of a medium to depict his own expressions. Kibria has used the layers
of colors or scraped surface of oil painting to depict psycho-introspective expressions.
On the other hand, the texture of stone, possibility of dimensions, subtle linear
drawing in lithograph have given Kibria the opportunity of creating sensual, lyrical
visual art. Kibria has done all these with enviable craftsmanship. According to Kibria
himself, he has tried to understand each medium and to read their languages. He
believes it to be a major artistic achievement to be able to create a harmony between
one’s own artistic aspirations and the possibilities of a medium. 7
Kibria passed his childhood at the town of Shiuri in Birbhum district. Kibria
remembers it as a sleepy town built on red soil with a lot of open space. It was very
close to Santiniketan which gave it a sophisticated, urban taste. Kibria remembers that
he saw the works of major artists from Santiniketan in the fair that was held in Shiuri.
He wanted to be admitted to Kala Bhavana of Santiniketan after his high school
graduation. Somehow the date of admission was over for that year and he could not
get admitted there but had to come to Calcutta Art School. Altogether ninety-one
students were admitted in the Art School that year. The Second World War had only
just ended. Such a big number of students in the Art School during such difficult times
remind us of the prosperity of the school. Kibria himself is of the opinion that the
environment of the Art School and the quality of the teachers were very rich for formal
training on art. Somnath Hore was his classmate. He remembers the environment of
secular art practice at the Art School. 8
When Kibria came out of Art School at the fag end of the forties of the last century, his
artistic aspiration was throbbing to go beyond the academic style. He had learned the
skills of using techniques from the teachers of the Art School. Teacher like Basanta
Ganguly had made him conscious about the centrifugal structure of a picture and taught
him how to stretch the field of vision of viewers by the sensitive use of lines. The principal
of the Art School, Ramendranath Chakravorty, was a man of knowledge about the
international trends of art. The influence of these teachers and perhaps, the introspective, fig. 9.8 Water Sport, oil,
solitude seeking, deeply sensitive mind of Kibria was preparing the future artist in him. 1953
He was getting prepared to seek the third dimension within the two-dimensional pictorial
plane going beyond the representative
depiction of life and matter in art. Recalling
the days just after the Art School, Kibria says
that he was already then familiar with
Impressionism and Expressionism of the west
and also he was drawn to miniature paintings
and was especially partial towards Pahari
miniature painting. 9
At the beginning of the fifties Kibria came to
Dhaka as a citizen of a newly born state. He

370 ART AND CRAFTS


left Birbhum of his childhood and Kolkata of his early youth almost forever. At that
time various experiments were going on in different media of art, like poetry, short
stories and novels in Dhaka. The young generation was trying to leave behind old
sensibilities, old languages in a new country as new citizens. It was not simply a whim
of discarding the old just because it was old. They did have something new to say, they
were inspired, moved by new sensations. Kibria and his contemporary artists - the
second generation of artists in this country after Zainul, Quamrul, Safiuddin and
Sultan represented the youthful sensibilities of the fifties in fine arts. They nourished
the taste and mental state of the city. Simplicity had faded away from the forms of their
art works, in some of their works the village that they had left behind became an image
of nostalgia. Their simplified figures and distorted perspective inspired the viewers to
think about life and nature from a different angle, and some of their paintings became
the existential geometry of urban alienation, loneliness and boredom. Along with
these, the negative attitude of conservative society about figurative art also worked as
a catalyst. It is an established fact that the more the power machinery becomes
irascible the more art becomes introspective. The time when Kibria made a beginning
as an artist was like this. His mind was filled with loneliness, insecurity and a wall of
silence. On the other hand, there was the rhythm of a new age in a new city. At that
time, in the fifties, Kibria had painted Dance in the graveyard or A horse in moonlight-
surrealistic paintings of a depressed, scared, silent mind. Sad blue and blackish red had
become the signs of cold deathliness in these paintings. Falling figures have joined in
these works adding a sense of experience of the edge of an endless pit in a nightmare.
On the other hand, he had expressed subdued romanticism, and arranged happiness
and music without exuberance in paintings like Water sport (fig.9.9) and Full moon.
fig. 9.9 Composition: The forms of these painting are inspired from Cubism. But the originality of these
Black, lithograph, 1960
works lies in the fact that these paintings comprise subtle cubic lines fading in
geometry-less brushing of colors within the horizontal sensitive compositions rather
than the strong geometry of cubes. We have talked about The
horse in moonlight; we can also talk about Three souls - the
painting which brought him the national award in painting for
the second time. These paintings are not ordinary depictions of
three-dimensional geometry, but we should say that Kibria’s
own discourse began with these works. The discourse includes
dialogue on the surface and beyond it, feelings versus skills,
intellectual urbanity versus Vaishnava detachment. These works
clearly foretell the sign that Kibria would concentrate in the
inspection of the mind in his artwork.
Kibria entered the second phase of his artistic life ending the first
phase at the end of the fifties. This phase added the chapters of
texture and space related issues in his works. He went to Japan in
1959 to seek higher learning in oil painting and printmaking. He
got himself trained in oil painting in the first two years and in the
third year he learned woodcut, etching and lithograph. His

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 371


teacher in oil painting was Takeshi Hayaki. He learned etching from Professor Komai
and woodcut from artist Hideyo Hagiwara. He took lessons on woodcut in this artist’s
10
studio twice a week. The three dimensionality of wood and stone made him conscious
about texture. The process of ‘becoming’ of the lifeless three-dimensional objects felt
like an exciting process of creation to him. During his stay in Japan Kibria got the
opportunity of seeing the works of a number of major, contemporary artists of the
world. He saw the works of American artists like Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning,
Franz Klein, Spanish artist Antoni Tapies, Italian artist Alberto Burri and French artist
Pierre Soulages. 11 Through this process, Kibria started to feel close with some
contemporary international art movements like Abstract Expressionism or Art
Informel. This introduction helped Kibria reach maturity and progress in the journey he
had already started.
Other things that attracted Kibria in Japan were the geometric rhythm of the cities and
the nature, some sort of centrifugal composition in the use of space everywhere, the
soft-spoken, almost silent populace and the sublime influence of Buddhist Zen
philosophy in life and art. Kibria was greatly influenced by the garden art of Japan. 12
He, perhaps, felt an allegiance with the sublime beauty and the sense of somber silence
that was created by the combination of stone and space. The wash technique and the use
of white in Japanese painting also added to this. Some black and white lithographs that
Kibria did in 1960-61 bear the sign of such somber monumentality and the caring touch
of the wash (9.9). Kibria says that, he started these works feeling inspired from the
general characters of calligraphy. Did the balanced geometry and calm sense of history
of calligraphy somehow combine with the black and white Reflex painting of Franz
Klein? Did the spatial inspiration of the Japanese garden and the white textured surface fig. 9.10 Amber,
of Klein influence Kibria simultaneously? According to Kibria himself, the possibilities lithograph, 1968
and challenges of lithograph as a medium also stimulated his creative instincts along
with all these catalysts. 13
From this time onwards, the illusive plane of the third dimension
started to appear in the paintings and prints of Kibria through the
effects of texture. Texture has depicted the struggle for creation
(Two Flowers, 1960), created the mirror image of erosion
(Composition, 1963) and much later (Erosion, 1988) given the
viewers the feeling of facing the monumentality of cosmic events
(Amber, 1968). Especially, in lithograph, Kibria used the erosion
of stone with great craftsmanship to create the richness of texture
(fig. 9.10). The complementary use of white and back or ash in
the works Kibria of the 60s and 70s have created an environment
of silent conflict. It is indeed silent, because the spatial
composition reminds us more of ritualistic separation rather than
chaotic noise. One such work is Composition Black of 1976. On
the other hand, the supplementary presence of ash and black or
black and blackish green give the feeling of discovery of distance
within closeness.

372 ART AND CRAFTS


We observe that at this period his works tended to flow in the Abstract Expressionist
direction. Figures vanished from his works and sometimes absence of structure engulfed
his compositions as we find in Action Painting (Red, 1966, Black and White, 1966,
Black and Gray, 1966, Black and Gray, 1968). At times his lines tended to become
restless and indefinite. But this tendency did not become permanent. Kibria left the
slackness of composition and came back to the discipline of structure in the 70s. At one
stage he started to feel close with the Color-field artists. Mark Rothko is his favorite
artist. But Kibria himself reminds us, ‘Rothko is more geometric than lyrical. Also he
14
has not worked with texture.’ On the other hand, European artists Alberto Burri and
Antoni Tapies- whose names are related to the Art Informel movement are favorite
artists of Kibria. 15 When we see the works of Kibria, we are reminded of the works of
these artists. Kibria does not have any conflicts or contradictions about it. He says, if an
artist can add only five percent of individual creativity in the work the artist does then
the artist may be considered a successful one. 16
Mohammad Kibria says that Abstract Expressionism created ripples within him and in
the sixties when he got attracted towards this movement, it had crossed state
boundaries all over the world. But how did this international art form became the tool
for Kibria’s artistic expression? Kibria never lived in the cities of Europe, he did not
have the experience of living a two dimensional life in tragic geometry, he did not
have the memory of long war and genocide. But it was such a time when sensitive
human minds all over the world came to know that the foundation of humanity was
badly shaken, the term ‘eternal’ was shaken in terms of belief, human relationship and
feelings. In such times disturbed humanity said, ‘The first half of the century ended at
Hiroshima, the second half began with gravest doubts about the human species being
around to record its end.’ 17
What if Kibria took himself for a man of these sad times and became skeptical about
the very meaning of his existence? What if art had become a project of discovering the
meaning of his existence? It seems that in the early 60s Kibria was engulfed with such
existentialist thoughts regarding art, the artists, self and their usefulness. Perhaps,
Kibria needed to ‘attest’ or make his own existence ‘meaningful’ through his art.
Kibria gave himself an identity within the crowd by creating the image of his mind in
his canvas.
Even today Kibria says, ‘Art is mainly a matter of the subconscious. It has to go
18
through pictorial realization in the end, but that is not the essence of art.’ We may
remember that one of the artists closely related to the Art Informel movement,
Dubuffet of France said, ‘Art should go to the roots of mental activity, where thought
is close to its birth.’ 19
We know that during that period in Dhaka Shamsur Rahman, Shahid Quadri or Al
Mahmud in poetry, Syed Waliullah, Shahidullah Kaiser, Rashid Karim or Syed
Shamsul Haque in short stories and novels and Zahir Raihan or Sadeque Khan in film-
within various limitations, were trying to do experiments. Some of them were trying
to touch the language of art that had no state boundary, some tried to find the artistic
expression of urban sensibilities, some tried to create a language to seek the identity

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 373


of the native country. Kibria’s works in fine arts were only parallel to these efforts. He
had within himself the uncertainty of rootlessness, the memory of famine, communal
violence and partition of India. He could foresee the certain tragedy of the new city
with the vision of an artist. In this way, Kibria wanted to know his own self through
his experience- he became an oriental existentialist artist.
In the mid-seventies the Color-fields started to appear in the works of Kibria. A sense
of claustrophobia and captivity became apparent in these works. The works titled
Ashes (fig. 9.11) had compositions like the cross. The stone like texture within the
tightly arranged square shaped fields became symbols of bad times. The fields with
various degree of blacks and the torn and scratch like textures of their bodies in the
work Painting in Black, (1975) (fig.1.22) give a feeling of suffocation. Two white
fields are engaged in a non-stop battle with the grayness from both sides. These works
seem to be the discourse of the artist’s crisis of existence with his environment. We
remember that perhaps, Kibria saw such dialectics of black and white in the works of
Soulages. But Kibria paints in lifeless black and matte white while Soulages had
worked with shiny black and fluorescent white. Again, we find a discourse of feelings
within the controlled composition in Kibria’s works while Soulages’ work contained
the structureless free flow of paint. In the 70s, another series of works by Kibria titled
Memory try to bring back romanticism within him from the bleakness of
existentialism. What are the memories that trouble Kibria in these works done in
etching? I remember the poem Bhagyaganana (Fortune Telling) by Sudhindranath
Dutt whenever I stand in front of these works. ‘Failure is not the enemy, / necessary
pain is not the enemy; / my enemy is only neutral time, / passage of time, / fearsome,
huge.’ 20 A sense of passage of time is felt in these prints like his collages done much
later in the recent past which bear the stormy seal of the passage of time. The picked
out textured surface, stormy speed of thorny lines bring the sense of different time fig. 9.11 Ashes, oil and
zones and flow of time; somehow we are stuck by the spike of sadness by his etchings collage, 1978
of the Memory series. Now we remember the
works of Spanish artist Tapies.
Kibria’s works again began to change in the 80s.
The solid square fields melt and they become
uneven, indefinite areas. The purity of
composition tends to break but the control
remains very much in the hands of the artist. The
movement of form almost gives us a sense of
vision; we almost enter a sense where we can
understand the truth within the form and color.
From this stage, the works of Kibria start a visual
nurturing and at the same time there appears a
somber, quiet ritual. This dimension transforms
Kibria from a Color-field artist to his own world
of art. Gradually a meditating, abstract language
of art germinates. He achieves tremendous

374 ART AND CRAFTS


dexterity in geometric minimization; in this
manner red, blue, black, grey or brown colors
become self-born on the space of his canvases. In
the nineties Kibria arranges a watery calmness
on his canvases. We may imagine that the cloudy
sky of Bengal, brimming with water and the
urban landscape like the slimy old wall in the
rainy season inspire him- his incessantly hurt and
sad mind becomes calm and somber through the
care of time and nature. From the middle of this
decade white plays a major role in arranging the
space. From this time onwards a carefree style,
which is the product of vast experience, becomes
visible in his works. Kibria himself jokes about it
by saying, ‘Vaisnava thinking is perhaps the
ultimate goal!’ Two almost white paintings of
21
2000 speak about the mind of an artist who is
totally unconcerned about form, geometry or
structure. These paintings reach a sublime status
with the help of texture only (fig. 9.12). Are we
reminded of the free fields of white texture in the
works of Franz Klein? Alternatively, do we
remember the action painter Kibria of four decades back? Similarly, the collage made
of oil paint and paper titled Decay of 2001 reminds us of the lithographs of Kibria in
the sixties. All these contradictions or going back to the old in search of something
new may be thought of as the life cycle of creation. There was torn silk and blood
stained bandage in the collage
of Alberto Burri because Burri
had seen the war, he was doctor
in the Second World War. We
can see the signs of Burri in
Kibria’s works. But the
similarity vanishes at the
surface. Torn paper, burnt
clothes or rusty tin create a
distance of time and space with
the colored canvas. These
materials lose their physical
properties- if we are prepared to
fig. 9.12 Untitled, oil,
2000 expand our imagination we may
say that we have a still frame
fig. 9.13 Ensemble, oil from time travel frozen in our
and collage, 2004 mind (fig. 9.13).

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 375


In this way, Kibria creates the oriental urban artwork which is romantic, self searching
and intellectual in nature He draws his inspiration from the existential aesthetics of
alienation and loneliness of the last century of the second millennium. From erosion,
misery, and fear he emerges to lyrical surface and ritualistic thoughts. He is a skilled
craftsman in the management of space flowing colors through this space create
dialogue between conscious and subconscious through sublime geometry and sharp
texture. This is the artwork of Kibria.
Main contribution to art, influence on other artists
Mohammad Kibria and few others of his generation pioneered the trend of abstract art
in this country. Kibria managed to create some uniqueness in his abstraction- he has
traversed different avenues before coming up with his own pictorial language and this
language has evolved and matured. A few generations of artists after him have taken
the main structure of his pictorial language with a view to creating their own
languages. Although Kibria creates the ‘bleak manuscripts’ of modernity, he reveals
his full-fledged Bengali mind through romanticism. We find his similarities with the
poets of the thirties - especially with Jibanananda Das. Kibria has a mild voice, his
emotions are controlled and expressed in symbols; he is still longing for beauty when
the meaning of life makes him perturbed. Kibria managed to negate the dialectics of
this Bengali-ness and abstraction of art. On top of this Kibria is in possession of a pure
urban mentality, which has given him a paradigm of metropolitan philosophy of life.
For the artists after Kibria who try to draw inspiration from his works, the negation of
this dialectics and issue of paradigm of philosophy of life become major challenges.
Each practitioner of abstract art has to try solving these problems in her/his own
unique way. These are the absolute preconditions of graduating from superficial
surface painting to visual expression born in the mind. In the sixties and seventies
artists like Abu Taher, Mohammad Mohsin, Mahmudul Haque, Abul Barq Alvi,
Kalidas Karmakar have presented various expressions of abstract art on canvas. Such
works have also been presented by Hashi Chakraborty, Kazi Ghiyas, Swapan
Choudhury, K M A Quayyum, Mominul Reza and Farida Zaman. Later on artists like
Mohammad Eunus, G. S. Kabir and Iftekharuddin Ahmed joined them. This trend
continues to this day.
We can talk about the main philosophy of Conceptual Art. Is it not exciting to find that
the proposition of art being a concept formed within the thought process of an artist
and the proposition of Kibria of art being a process born within the subconscious of
the artist are parallel to each other? Both the propositions want to stress the importance
of the process of creation in art. Apparently, the propositions take diagonally opposite
stands. Nevertheless, they have a similar point of view in iterating that art is created
through a process and the artist is not a capricious, self-willed ruler but a humble
human being nursing a process.
We would conclude by saying that the art works and thoughts on art of Mohammad
Kibria is a unique treasure in the world of our visual art.

c. Aminul Islam
Moinuddin Khaled


The practice of fine arts in this country gained momentum during the 1950s. Aminul
Islam is an eminent artist of this period. Along with academic education, by assimilating
the essence of art from diverse sources and meeting with many famous artists and art
loving humanitarians, he enriched his own life and art. The contribution of Aminul
Islam in bringing a modern dimension to the fine arts of this country is undisputed.
According to record, Aminul Islam was born on 7 November 1931. Nevertheless, the
artist himself is skeptical about the authenticity of this date. Because the paper (thikuji)
that contained his date of birth had worn out so much that it could not be read properly.
He believes that he was born in 1930. His ancestral house is in the village of Jalakandi
near Dhaka. But he was born in his maternal house in the village Tetia on the river
Meghna. At that time, Aminul’s father was working in Mymensingh as a sub-divisional
School Inspector, and Aminul passed some time of his childhood in Mymensingh.
There was no practice of proper fine arts in his family. But the kind of artistic talent
that can be found in making necessary artifacts of rural life was present in his elder
uncle. His uncle had a strong attraction towards making fishing rods, kites, hand fans
etc. and enjoyed traditional theatres and opera. The cultural ambience of his maternal
house deeply inspired his creativity in his childhood and adolescence. His maternal
grandfather was not attracted to a domestic life. He believed in the innate marfati
philosophy of the Nengta Fakir (Naked Saint) of Beltala. At the same time, he also
contributed to the welfare of the farmer community. In his autobiography Aminul
mentions that the cultural environment of his maternal grandparents’ house had
particularly influenced his mental frame, ‘Probably the bent towards secularism and
traveling that I got at the initial stage of my quest for roots came through my maternal
22
grandparents’ home.’ [Trans.]
His mental frame was further enriched by the cultural ambience of the female
fig. 9.14 Aminul Islam
quarters of his house. As a child, Aminul tasted the essence of art by watching the
traditional nakshi pitha (designed cake) and embroideries done by his mother and
aunts. He says, ‘To watch the making of those nakshi pitha was my first experience
of art creation - a kind of symmetry and ornamentation. I used to join in the work
23
disregarding their bar.’ [Trans.]
A creative person experiences multidimensional influences. The natural beauty of his
birthplace, Tetia village on the Meghna, and different activities of its inhabitants had
stirred his passion for creativity in childhood. The artist himself informs us, through
his autobiography, about his inspirations to become an artist. Owing to the transferable
job of his father, they lived in Chashara of Narayanganj district for some time. His
primary education started there in the school of Pundit Ramkanai. He took admission
in the free primary school of Mahuttuli in 1936 after his father was transferred to

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 377


Dhaka. His drawing teacher in this school inspired him to draw. But the artistic
ornamentation in the mosques in old Dhaka by the traditional masons was more
inspiring for him than the conventional methods of drawing at school. The indigenous
tradition of making murals using pieces of broken China plates by the artisans at that
time deeply influenced Aminul as a child. In his memoirs Aminul said, ‘At that time,
a special incident drew me towards paintings, an attraction which is still present. …
Two elderly ostagars (master artisans) worked for months on ornamentations by
cutting the pieces of China to required sizes and executed creepers-leaves, flowers
etc.’ 24 [Trans.] Later Aminul got admission in Armanitola School. Here his
encouraging drawing teacher was Saratchandra Chakraborty.
Aminul enlightened himself by reading books and magazines as a member of Patuatuli
library. The magazines that greatly influenced many in this country to become artists
did the same to Aminul. Prabasi, Bichitra, Bharatbarsha, Basumati, Mohammadi and
such magazines used to publish paintings of local and international artists. Aminul saw
the works of the master artist of the east, Abanindranath Tagore and of Renaissance
master Raphael in these magazines.
Aminul went to Kolkata for the first time in 1944 with a passionate desire to become
an artist. Later, he went to Kolkata a few more times and saw exhibitions of famous
artists of the Bengal School. He successfully passed the admission test in Kolkata
Government Art School in 1947. However, by this time, it became evident that the
subcontinent would be divided into two parts. In these changing times, Aminul came
back to East Bengal with Zainul Abedin.
The Government Institute of Art was founded in Dhaka in 1948. The classes started in
the same year. Aminul was a meritorious student of the first batch in this Institute. This
Institute was modeled after the Art School of Kolkata. Mainly western type of art was
taught in this Institute. Perspective, the distribution of light and shade in the mimetic
representation of objects, anatomy etc. were taught here in the academic method.
However, the education in this art school of Dhaka was not confined to the naturalistic fig. 9.15 Musical
art of the west. There were many reasons for this. Zainul was the idol for the young Performance at Night,
artists at that time. Academic realism of the west was not directly followed in the watercolor, 1951
works of Zainul. His works reflected a
combination of the use of lines from the
east and the artistic methods of the west.
And not only nature, but also the lives of
the working class were the prime subject of
his work. He also asked his students of the
Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka to visit various
communities and portray the lives of the
people in different professions. Zainul’s
comrades Quamrul Hassan, Anwarul Huq
and others also inspired the students to
depict the lives of the working class in

378 ART AND CRAFTS


Bangladesh. This practice of creating art which is close to life later inspired the artists
to create paintings on contemporary politics. The limitation of facilities of the Institute
forced the students to come out of studio-based paintings and academic naturalism.
The Fine Arts Institute of Dhaka did not have any tradition of western art as was
present in Kolkata. And also, this institute could not provide the facilities for painting
in the studio. However, it is not true that only the limitation of the facilities inspired
the artists of the generation of Aminul to create paintings which were socially
conscious and close to life. The greater truth was time itself which had a much deeper
influence, along with the belief and commitment of the representatives of that time.
Aminul had close relationship with the members of the Pragati Lekhak Shamha
(Progressive Writers Group) established in the 1940s in Dhaka. He studied in Dhaka
College for some time. In the late 1940s, the meritorious students of the country came
to study in this college. Among them, Aminul developed friendship with those who
had pledged to work for the emancipation of the poor of this country. At that time, he
embraced the philosophy of socialism and to the very present, his confidence in
Marxism remains unchanged.
At a certain point, the works of the revolutionary artists became more important to him
than the artistic ideas of Zainul. At the same time, the ever passionately experimental
artist thought that the kind of analysis of form that was going on in the arts of the west
would have to be integrated in the contemporary art of this country. Even the works
of his student life reflected the influence of the communist artist of Mexico – Rivera,
Siqueiros, and Orozco.
Aminul Islam finished his studies at the Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka in 1953. Starting
from his participation in 1951 in the exhibition of Dhaka Art Group – the first such
group of the country, he was participated in almost all the exhibitions. After
completing his course at the Institute of Fine Art, he went for higher studies at
‘Academia di Belli Arti’– the famed institute of Florence for studying art - from 1953
to 1956, having been awarded a scholarship by the Italian government. Upon
returning from Italy he joined the Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka as a teacher. In the
fig. 9.16 Florence, oil, course of his long teaching career, he became the Principal of the Institute – and after
1954 retirement he has kept himself engaged in various art-related organizations and
activities to the very present.
Aminul’s practice of art took a decisive
turn in Florence. He studied there under
the guidance of Primo Conti, the renowned
professor of that time. Besides, he was
introduced to many artists and writers of
Europe and America. The well-known
Colombian artist Fernando Botero was his
classmate. He also developed close rapport
with the American writer James Baldwin
through their common interest in

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 379


communist ideology. A desire for
adventure is ever present in Aminul Islam’s
consciousness. On the one hand, this takes
him to explore new horizons of art; and on
the other, this makes him develop
camaraderie with day laborers and famous
people alike, and, travel on a motorcycle
from Italy to London, through France.
Though his mind wanders in adventures,
he has tried to remain true to a scientific
approach. The evidence of intelligence is
stronger in his works than the intuition of
the creator. However, he knows that the
human mind aspires to reach infinity. He
says on the process of creation, ‘In the
creation of visual art and sculpture, the
importance of sensitive limbs is enormous. Horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines fig. 9.17 Expansion of
directly stimulate our brain cells to express one emotion or other. These emotions bear Sphere and Structure,
resemblance to various postures of the body. ... The lines in various directions – mosaic mural, 1987
symbolizing calm, force and movement – pervade our subconscious and empower us
to feel, to create and to appreciate art.’ 25 [Trans.]
Aminul never worked at his paintings as an artist adulating nature. He was more
inclined to creating forms than composing layers of colors. In his academic works, one
can find, at the same time, densely woven color surfaces in the fashion of the Bengal
School artists and techniques of western realism. As regards his perceptions, he
cherished optimism for the most part. Though he painted poverty-stricken lives, it was
mostly for the intention of the documentary depiction of the inequalities of the society.
Probably owing to his belief in socialism, he felt a particular desire to depict collective
culture. The main subjects of his contemplation are the events in the everyday work
and various festivities of the collective society. His watercolors Queue (1951),
Musical Performance at Night (1951) etc. are examples of this perception. (fig. 9.15).
In Florence, there was a major change in Aminul’s life as well. Here he first saw the
original works of the Renaissance masters. In 1953 and the beginning of 1954, he
started following these masters – as exercises in the curricula of the school and to put
himself through new tests. Therefore, he had to return unavoidably to the
representational language of art. His works at this time mostly employed a
combination of geometric forms and textures on the two-dimensional surface of
paintings. He was able to demonstrate originality in the division of space and
distribution of light and shade. There was a change in his subjects in this phase. He no
longer painted only the ordinary working people - the beneficiaries of society also
appeared as characters in his paintings. The transformation in the language of his
painting is especially notable. He became bolder in his forms. He arranged figures in

380 ART AND CRAFTS


various geometric forms. These forms were created in such a way that one could be
seen through the other. A kind of cubic art was created here – known as the disguised
cubic style. These forms made of strong contour lines also remind one of mosaic art.
These paintings are his most important creations in the context of the evolution of
forms. On this the artist says, ‘One of the first works was the city of Florence. I
painted Chashi O Brishti (Peasant and Rain), Jele (Fisherman), Ma-Chhele (Mother-
Son), Paribar (Family), Street Singer etc. the way I imagined them – the academic
methods was not followed in any of these. It was a new phase in my ideas about
painting – combining semi-abstract simplification with geometry and rhythm.’ 26
[Trans.] (fig. 9.16)
The painter’s skill in geometric division of space and composition of lines and forms
is best exemplified in his mosaics and murals. He has artistically created harmony of
colors and forms in his Girl Playing with Bird (1956), Expansion of Sphere and
Structure (1987) and such works (fig. 9.17). The artist studied both forms of murals –
secco and bueno – in the School of Mosaic in Italy. He has demonstrated his
competence in these techniques particularly in the murals of Bangladesh Bank, Janata
Bank and Osmani Memorial.
In the beginning of the 1960s, he started relying solely on colors. The shapes of known
objects vanished from the canvas of his paintings. He expressed his emotions through
an eruption of colors. There is intensity and a manifestation of warmth in his emotions.
There are suggestions of red, yellow and blue over large areas. In the works, titled
Transformation, he searched for small geometric forms among the erupting colors.
Here and there, he has added motifs like the flower and the sun. Thus, he came back
fig. 9.18 Time and to the world of shapes and figures from the non-representational streams of colors. He
Beyond, oil and collage, even did figurative paintings in the 1980s following the representational style. On the
1974 topic of his wavering between the representational and abstract language of art, art
critic Osman Jamal can be quoted, ‘Aminul chooses the
colors and the sequence in which they are applied, but
retains little control over what happens next. He induces
colors to move and mix and generate forms and new
colors with the least possible interference on his part.’ 27
On the one hand, the organic image of forms and on the
other the independent existence of colors - in both
phases Aminul has used his artistic intelligence. This
artist of optimistic disposition depicted the experience of
the Liberation War of 1971 as a human debacle. In his
paintings on war, the assorted white bones of numerous
skeletons create metaphor of genocide. In the
foreground of the paintings are rows of human bones,
crossing which one finds a field of color – speaking of
life reborn. But in Wound, a painting he did in the
beginning of the 1970s, the lonely presence of a man

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 381


bears out the artist’s sense of isolation. Aminul
wanted to capture the universal form of time.
In collage and other mixed media works, he
attached to the surface images of wars and
conflicts created by humans and then used
colors to add a painterly moderation so that
one can also go beyond the limits of time. His
paintings titled Time and Beyond testify to his
dialectical ideas (fig. 9.18).
To Aminul, the study of art is like a mirror for
self-analysis. Using oil paint and pieces of
glass, he created geometric shapes to paint his
self-portrait. Sometimes he painted parts of his
body; or brought to the mirror reflections of
his own figure or of some event in time. Here
again he confronts time with a dialectical
formula. He wants to gauge the endless state
of his existence. Thus, he names his painting
In Search of Self-portrait (fig. 9.19).
Aminul never wavered from the truth that
painting means light in opposition to darkness.
He is still illustrating this truth with a variety of
compositions in his creative drawings. These designs sometimes relate to some aspect fig. 9.19 In Search of
of man or nature, sometimes they are stopped in a state where it seems the forms are Self-portrait, oil and
still evolving on the surface of the paper. Through these transformable motifs, Aminul mirror collage, 1982
speaks of the prospect of lines growing into pictures. The artist’s eternal belief in the
transformative nature of objects still shows in his works (fig. 1.23).
Through a re-examination of the language of folk art, a dimension of novelty was
added in 1953 in the study of modern art in Bangladesh. Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin
was the pioneer of this enquiry. Experimentation in the field of art of this country
gained a new momentum in the 1950s. A few painters and a sculptor, who had studied
in Europe, brought about this change. Aminul Islam’s soliloquy regarding this is note-
worthy, ‘The first residence of three young Bengali artists – Hamidur Rahman,
Novera Ahmed and myself – in Florence, the center of the European Renaissance, and
coincidentally not far from the home of Dante, the great poet of world literature,
without doubt created a special significance in our lives. Our brief stay together gave
birth to many discussions on the most complex theories - through our original
thoughts and perceptions of art and subtle and diverse questions on national and
international ideas. This process was further enriched through our experience in
Europe over the next three years. After we returned to the country in the middle of
1956, within one or two months of each other, the revolutionary demonstration of the
painting style of Hamid and myself in October and November, and later of Novera’s

382 ART AND CRAFTS


sculptures, made a potent impact in the quiet world of local art. After all these years
I would like to say with modesty: there was no movement in the field of painting in
Dhaka, there was no experimentation with style – all was confined to the same rules
28
and methods.’ [Trans.]
Although this reflection of the artist is mostly true, – taking queue from the folk art -
a new life had surely been infused in the paintings of this country. The three artists
mentioned, however, can claim their part as leading figures in the inventive
experimentations of the 1950s.
Hamidur Rahman and Novera Ahmed and others did not stay in the country for long.
Aminul Islam stayed on as a teacher of the Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka, paying no
heed to the extension of his scholarship in Italy. He gradually assumed a central
position in the field of art in Dhaka owing to his competence in both experimentations
with art and theoretical discourses. Zainul Abedin was proud of him. He proved his
competence in meetings and seminars and performed as an able judge in various
competitions and seminars of art. Apart from his memoirs, he wrote several essays to
analyze his thoughts on art. His memory is very sharp. Many artists and critics
benefited in various ways from discussing and consulting with him.
In Dhaka Art College, Aminul Islam was the first lecturer included in the government
gazette. He was the Principal of this college from 1978 to 1983. Aminul Islam’s
contribution in stimulating the art lovers and inspiring the young artists through
teaching was not confined within the Institute of Fine Art. He has taught many art
enthusiasts generously outside academic premises; and he interacts with artists of the
young generation like friends.
Starting from his distant boyhood, Aminul Islam is still practicing art today. He does
not have weakness for any particular style and is still working in various media. There
have been 10 solo exhibitions of the artist, in the country and outside, since 1956 and
he has participated in many group exhibitions. He has received awards both at home
and abroad. He received the first prize in the show of the Dhaka Art Group in 1952.
He won national awards in the Pakistan era in 1957 and in Bangladesh in 1964. In
1976, he was awarded the Shilpakala Academy prize and the ‘Grand Imperial’ prize at
the 5th Teheran Biennale. The highest civil award of the country ‘Ekushey Padak’ was
given to the artist in 1981. ‘Bangladesh Charushilpi Samsad’ honored him in 1985. He
received Independence Award in 1988.
Aminul Islam participated in biennales and triennales all over the world; at the same
time he worked as a member of the jury in the local biennales and has been involved
in various organizational activities to carry out the multifarious responsibilities of an
artist’s life. In the local art world, he is still a guardian figure.





Translated by Nusrat Jahan, Program Manager, Traidcraft Exchange, Bangladesh Country Office

d. Novera Ahmed
Lala Rukh Selim

Novera Ahmed was born in 1930 in Kolkata. Although we learn from Jalal Uddin
Ahmed that she was born in Chittagong in 1935. Novera was a gifted child and her
29
parents encouraged her by giving her a good schooling as well as singing and dancing
lessons. She completed her matriculation from the Loretto School of Kolkata. After
partition in 1947 Novera’s family moved to Comilla where her father was transferred.
Novera studied there at the Victoria College. Perhaps her childhood exposure to
sculpture in Kolkata, once the capital of British India, may have caused her to engage
in the idea of learning sculpture. There was, of course, the ever-present traditional
sculpture of India in folk and classic form. In addition, Novera’s mother had a hobby
of modeling in clay, which could possibly have been an incentive for her conceiving of
sculpture to be a worthy subject of study. Whatever were the reasons for it, in 1950
Novera ended up in London enrolled to study sculpture at the Camberwell School of
Arts and Crafts. Her sister was then residing in London, which perhaps gave Novera
the courage to take up the challenge of entering the world of art and studying sculpture.
The outcome was that she ended up completing her National Diploma in Design in the
Modeling and Sculpture course in 1955. She had as her teacher the Chekoslovakian
Professor Dr. Karel Vogel. In Dr Vogel’s testimonial written for Novera upon the
completion of her course he wrote – ‘Her studies from life show a strong sense of
observation and certainly there is originality and depth of thought in her compositions.
Her portrait heads are full of life. Though in general working in the European way Miss
Ahmed’s sculptures show how indelible is the unconscious influence of eastern
monumentality and traditions. 30
In her student days, Novera further enriched her perspective of European sculpture
through her personal efforts and curiosity. She went to visit the Rodin Museum in
Paris during the Christmas vacations of 1950. 31 In 1954, she studied sculpture in
32
Vienna. In 1955, she studied sculpture under Venturino Venturi in Florence for five fig. 9.20 Novera Ahmed
months. There she was acquainted with the works of the master sculptors of the
33
Renaissance. She also worked for some time in the studio of Jacob Epstein.’ 34
In 1956, Novera decided to return to her homeland with her friend, the artist Hamidur
Rahman. With this, we see the end of the first phase of Novera’s sculptures which can
roughly be divided into three phases according to style, though it must be clarified at
this point that these three phases are discussed here in view of the very small amount
of sculptures we see, and information we have about Novera’s work.
The first phase of her work may be termed as her academic phase. This was when she
studied the methods and ideals of European art taught in the academies and also
studied the works of the master sculptors of Europe.
She herself was used to working in the academic method as S.M. Ali has pointed out,
‘In Europe, she has worked in clay direct from life, having her work cast in metal, and
had never turned to abstraction.’ 35

384 ART AND CRAFTS


Her work entered a new phase as she returned to her homeland. According to S.M. Ali,
‘... facing the problem of casting in East Pakistan, she began experimenting in cement.
Since the medium has its own way of dictating the form and style of sculpture and to a
certain extent, its subject matter, the artist fought her way into a new field of experiment,
36
... She took to abstraction.’ Novera was thrown into a situation where she had to alter
the direction of her work to adapt to a special set of circumstances. Here she chose to
amalgamate a number of values and ideas that she had ingested during her years in
Europe in combination with the surging nationalism that had been whipped up in Bengal
in the wake of the drastic events of the Language Movement of 1952. It is obvious she
knew the values of primitive and oriental art and the way they had been used to help
European art break from its formal naturalism to enter modernism.
The other factor is her exposure to modern European sculpture. In the 1950s, Henry
Moore was a major figure in British art. Moore’s interest in Egyptian, Greek and ancient
American art is well recorded. Thus, when Novera returned to her homeland armed with
her academic knowledge she found herself up against a wall of technical and practical
difficulties. She set about surmounting these by beginning to experiment with local
material. Most of her works were done in cement and marble dust as well as some in
terracotta, plaster and wood. Having to change her working method and material
naturally resulted in the change of the forms of her work. It forced her to abandon her
earlier naturalism for simplicity. Most of Novera’s pieces were done directly in cement
on an armature of stiff iron rods. These lent her work an angular and linear quality as
her forms followed the framework of the armature (fig. 9.21). The most interesting part
about Novera’s work is her choice of subject. In the works executed from 1956 to 1960,
fig. 9.21 Title unknown, we see Novera introducing the form of the ageless type of terracotta figures traditional
photograph Amirul to India. A good example of this is still to be seen in the mural in the ground floor of the
Rajib, courtesy Central Library of the Dhaka University, the then newly built Central Public Library, an
Drishwakarma early example of modern architecture by Muzharul Islam. However, subsequent
alterations to the building and the insensitivity of the authorities to its
aesthetic quality has altered both the building and the view of the murals.
Her free standing sculptures also adopted the simplification of terracotta
figures done in the pinch process as may be seen in her family groups,
which once stood on the library grounds and are now preserved in the
Bangladesh National Museum. In her cement pieces, she has often used
pigments mixed into the cement to color the surface of the forms.
This phase of her work shows her rather romantic celebration of the
Bengali village life. It is borne out by the testimony of her peers that
during her stay in Dhaka she cut all ties with her family and lived and
worked alone. Apparently, on occasion she would leave ‘... the city life
behind to go out into the river to live her life with common village folk
.... At one time, these sudden disappearances become as frequent as her
visits to the mazars all over the countryside.’ 37
This rather quixotic practice seems to evince her sincerity in trying to
fathom what the Bengali peasant really was. She knew that to charge her

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 385


forms with meaning, she had to understand the truth beyond the
surface. The mazars too, perhaps, appealed to her as the embodiment
of the spiritualism of the people of East Bengal. Sufism has given
Bengal its unique blend of Islam with ancient traditions. Her interest
in the spiritual also finds form in the series of sculptures entitled
Peace based on the form of the seated Buddha. These pieces were
created after her travels to Yangon, Myanmar.
This phase of her work from 1956 to 1960 shows us Novera at her
most productive, as known to us. In 1957, Novera Ahmed and
Hamidur Rahman had a joint exhibition in the then Central Public
Library. In 1960, Novera’a exhibition in Dhaka was the first
exhibition of sculptures in East Bengal. Apparently, ‘By presenting
her work at this exhibition - a colossal collection of some 75 pieces
out of over a hundred sculptures - Novera has, in fact, come out of
her self-imposed isolation which, but for her few public
commissions in Dacca, has continued for nearly four years.’ 38
This phase of Novera’s work may be drawn up into two different
categories – perhaps they may not all be executed at the same time
but for the lack of date we must of necessity lump them together. The
more formal sculptures meant to be situated in public, open-air
spaces, generally adopted group compositions such as the family, the
family with its domestic animal, namely the necessary adjutant to the Bengali peasant fig. 9.22 The Long Wait,
family, the cow. These themes were impersonal, recognizable and ‘safe’ as anybody photograph Amirul
could identify them and find them meaningful. This belongs to one category. This group Rajib, courtesy
also shows the influence of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and the other Vitalists in Drishwakarma
the simplification of forms and the introduction of hollows in forms for the interplay of
light and shade, space and form. Her sculpture entitled Cow with Two Figures designed
and executed in 1958 for the lawn of an industrialist in Tejgaon is an example of this
phase. In fact, this sculpture is the first modern outdoor sculpture of the city of Dhaka.
This sculpture was preserved by the Bangladesh National Museum in its lawn when the
original building was destroyed.
Another type of Novera’s sculptures done during this same time is the less formal type.
These were designed for indoors, thus formally they are less concerned with the high
contrast of outdoor lighting. These are normally less complex in outline, more rounded,
less linear and more expressive and personal. The Long Wait, mother with two children
clutched to her bosom, and others are examples of this type (fig. 9.22, pl. 2.12). Here
the forms are very simple, drawn from folk art and less consciously built on western
types. Meant to be seen up close, details and expressions are given importance here.
Surfaces are not finished to smoothness as in the outdoor pieces, the obvious reason for
this was that they would be less threatened by erosion or the growth of moss and fungi.
In these pieces, we often see women in situations which seem far from happy or as
struggling against adversities.

386 ART AND CRAFTS


After the murals commissioned jointly for the then Central Public Library and the joint
exhibition of Novera and Hamidur Rahman in 1957, they were commissioned to design
and execute the Central Shaheed Minar on the recommendation of Shilpacharya Zainul
Abedin. Work on the mural painting at the base of the Shaheed Minar began. In 1958
military rule was declared, therefore the work had to be discontinued. With her sculpture
exhibition in 1960 we see the end of Novera’s working days in Dhaka. Her
unconventional lifestyle possibly made it difficult for her to stay in Dhaka. Perhaps the
dearth of patronage made her leave for West Pakistan at the invitation of the poet Faiz
Ahmed Faiz. She probably thought she would find greener pastures there yet to be
disappointed yet again. Nonetheless, in 1962 she won the best prize in sculpture with
the portrait bust of a boy that she entered in the National Exhibition of Paintings,
Sculpture and Graphic Arts in Lahore.
In the Pakistan Art Quarterly D.S. Watson gives us rather a sarcastic view of Novera’s
exhibits, ‘...with three fine pieces on view, two of which I liked, although the third and
the most ambitious left me completely cold. It is a large and dramatic representation of
a woman strangling a vulture, and is intended to show the victory of woman, as bearer
of life over the forces of death and evil. It is full of angles, awkward and aggressive, as
it is intended to be. I find it two direct and demanding, and would never live with it. 39
This perhaps is another phase of her work or more likely, a continuation of the more
personal style of her work that we have seen emerging in Dhaka. The subject too is the
woman struggling against adversity. Watson, however, had to admit that no discussion
of Pakistani art would be complete without reference to Novera. 40
From Pakistan Novera went to Mumbai to learn Bharat Natyam, reviving her childhood
interest in dancing. Apparently, she wanted to master the movements, mudras and rasa
of Bharata Natyam to incorporate into her work. She was taken ill there and went to
England for treatment. From England, she went to Paris in the hopes of finding an
environment conducive to her work. In 1970, she went to Bangkok and had an outdoor
sculpture exhibition. The exhibits were dramatically different from her earlier works.
The medium was welded metal and in some pieces, she used parts of airplanes destroyed
during the Vietnam War to create assemblages. After her show, she returned to Paris
where she had another exhibition in 1973 with further changes in media and form.
Novera has not once returned to Bangladesh since the 60s and has not maintained
contact with her friends or relatives. Her silence has been reciprocated with her name
being allowed to sink into oblivion, her oeuvre disappearing for lack of preservation.
Zainul Abedin wrote for Novera’s exhibition catalogue of 1960, ‘In East Pakistan’s art
world, it was a minor revolution, when Novera Ahmed gave the city the first frieze on
the wall of the Central Public Library in 1957 and then the first open air sculpture in
1958. We, the citizens of Dacca, have been living with this [sic.] two magnificent work
[sic] for [the] past few years. But I still think, we shall take generations to assess the
40
impact of these two work [sic] in our art life.’ In 1997, the Bangladesh Government
awarded Novera the Ekushey Padak in recognition of her contribution to sculpture.

e. Rashid Choudhury
Nasima Haque Mitu


Rashid Choudhury was born on 1st April 1932 at Haroa under the then Faridpur
district (currently under Rajbari district) in a zamindar family. His father was Yusuf
Hossain and mother Shirin Nessa Choudhurani. They were nine brothers and four
sisters. His father was a lawyer by profession and was involved in politics. It is known
that he was interested in the arts.
Rashid Choudhury passed the matriculation examination in 1949 and was admitted to
the Art College (now Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka University). He passed the BFA
examination in 1954 getting first class. In 1956-57, he got a postgraduate scholarship
of the Spanish government and went to the Central Escula Des Bellias Artes De San
Fernando in Madrid to learn sculpture. He went abroad for higher studies for the
second time in 1960-64. This time he went to the Academy of Julian and Beaux Arts
in Paris under a French government scholarship. There he received higher education
in fresco, sculpture and tapestry.
Rashid Choudhury won the first prize in fresco medium in Beaux Arts Paris in 1961.
He was awarded the first prize in RCD biennale exhibition held in Iran in 1968. In
1977, he received Ekushey Padak (highest civilian award) from the government of
Bangladesh and he got Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Award in 1980. In 1986
Bangladesh Charushilpi Samsad gave him an honorary award.
Artist Rashid Choudhury died in Dhaka on 12 December 1986.
Subjects of works, probable sources of inspiration and analysis of works:
The creativity of Rashid Choudhury moved in a circle centering on his mental
structure. He took a simple element with which he could identify himself and then
presented it in magical form – in composition without logic, in the image of dreams
and in emotional colors. He had an irresistible attraction towards the myths of
Bengal, in superstitions (which have their base in the folk culture of Bengal) and in fig. 9.23
Rashid Choudhury
imaginary feelings.
He was a romantic and a person with a positive attitude towards life. Through the
many complexities in his brief existence in the world, he never lost interest in life. The
happiness derived from love was very important in the life that he led. In all his works
is established the vibrancy of moving life.
The familiar icons of myths and folktales of Bengal like Radha-Krishna, Durga,
Kali, elephant, horse, bird, snake, and tree (banyan and banana) were repeatedly seen
in the art works of Rashid Choudhury. The forms of folk art created the forms of the
formal art of Rashid Choudhury. He traveled from form to the formless and the
imageless, in quest for the image. From this sensation in his work one may enter to
seek the source of his work.

388 ART AND CRAFTS


Folk icons became prominent in the works of Rashid Choudhury since he went to
Europe for higher studies for the second time in the sixties (1960-64). On this
journey he went to Paris. Until that time, his works had revolved around the
academic trend. This change in his work in the mid-sixties became a permanent trait.
Thus, the search for the reason of this change is important in the analysis of the
works of Rashid Choudhury.
We should consider his childhood first. He was brought up in Ratandia of Faridpur
district. His childhood was spent in watching the destruction and creation wreaked by
the mighty river Padma. The children of the priest of the Hindu temple were his
playmates. He listened to the melodious incantation of holy scripts by the priest. He
had seen broken temples, statues of deities amidst unruly vegetation. Rural life, folk
tales, myth, Durga, Kali, Radha-Krishna was all mixed up in his memory. He said
41
these were not religious matters, but part of our culture, our heritage. We understand
from the recollection of his memories that he was brought up in a liberal religious
environment and nurtured a secular consciousness right from the very beginning. He
sought out the tradition of Bengali culture from within his memory, in the rural life he
observed, the folk tales, folk festivals that he had seen and especially in the icons of
folk art. We can connect this memory-based inspiration of Rashid Choudhury’s
artwork with the works of the first generation artists of Bangladesh- most of whom
were his teachers.
After the partition of India in 1947, the first formal institution of art education of
East Bengal was established in 1948 in Dhaka, which is now known as the Institute
of Fine Art, Dhaka University. Rashid Choudhury was admitted to this institution
in 1949. His teachers included Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Anwarul Huq,
Safiuddin Ahmed, Habibur Rahman and Quamrul Hassan. They had all started
their lives as artists in Kolkata. Art critic Sovon Som has mentioned in an article
on Zainul Abedin that right from the beginning, the works of Zainul Abedin,
Quamrul Hassan and Safiuddin Ahmed, especially the subjects of their works, were
totally different from the general trend of that time. Although they had different
approaches towards compositional style, there was a kind of similarity in their
subjects. They took the world of their direct experience as the subjects of their art.
Here they were free from romantic emotions and naturalism gained prominence.
In their works we could see the lives of common people of that time and their direct
experience and memories of rural life. 42
One of the reasons behind this characteristic might be their religion. At that time there
was a taboo against image based art works in Muslim families. They had defied the
taboo and gone for art education. Yet there was no role of the image in the daily lives
of their Muslim families; besides, the Muslims of Bengal had no strong myths. On the
other hand, their lives were deeply connected to the nature of East Bengal, the
agrarian, riverine life, various social events, rites and rituals. They discovered their
artistic selves within this periphery.

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 389


The partition of nineteen forty-seven
had led an almost unprepared populace
(Bengali speaking Muslims) to try to
discover anew their entire identity.
They had to uphold the language and
culture besides facing the crisis of
identity within a divided political
boundary and at the same time having
to establish communications with the
outside world. All these led to a
continuous process of trying to do
something new from 1947 to the time
of the independence of Bangladesh.
The first generation artists of this
country tried to get their inspiration
from folk culture and life to discover a
new identity with the birth of a new
country. However, formally they
remained loyal to the western
academic style. Therefore, their works depicted the conflict between western style and fig. 9.24 Collecting
folk art on one side and folk life and contemporaneity on the other. Shells, oil, 1951
This background of the initial phase of the art world of Bangladesh played a major role
in the formation of the artistic spirit of Rashid Choudhury. He finished his art
education from Dhaka in 1954. His work during his student life was fully academic.
Collecting Shells – the oil painting he had done in 1951 shows the blue color of the
sky mingling in the sea. A horizontal line separates the seashore in the foreground
where three figures have created a triangle (fig. 9.24). The use of color and the
composition follow the western academic style. The pictorial division of the canvas in
this painting is similar to the watercolor on board by Zainul Abedin in 1951 titled
Waiting by the Brahmaputra for Ferry.
In 1957, a change is notable in the works of Rashid Choudhury. This happened in the
one year when he was in Madrid for higher studies under the postgraduate scholarship
program of the Spanish government from 1956-57. A subtle influence of sculptural
training is evident in his paintings of 1957. In two paintings of this year, titled Sitting
Woman and Three Women, the figures have been presented as solid forms instead of
using realistic light and shade. The figures are presented against the background
surface of the canvas and they have created a single shape over the entire surface. At
that time, he was introduced directly with the works of European artists and his ideas
went through some changes. Perhaps, the works of Marc Chagall worked as a catalyst
in bringing about the changes in him. He has spoken about this artist time and again in
various discussions. Although the direct influence of Marc Chagall is evident in Goat

390 ART AND CRAFTS


(oil color) in 1958 and Nabanna-1 (oil
color) in 1959, this did not become a
permanent feature of his works (fig.
9.25). Rashid Choudhury perhaps felt a
mental closeness not with the actual
creation of Marc Chagall, but with his
source of inspiration- his love for his
motherland, the blending of memory
and the world of dreams. Rashid
Choudhury could possibly feel a mental
link with Chagall and it helped him
discover his own self. This became the
main inspiration of his later works
(since the time we can distinguish the
characteristics of his works).
After returning from Spain, he taught
in the Art Institute at Dhaka from 1958
to 1960. In 1960, he got the
postgraduate scholarship of the French
fig. 9.25 Nabanna-1, government and studied fresco, tapestry and sculpture in the Academy of Julian and
oil, 1959 Beaux Arts in Paris.
In an interview with the journal Nirantar, Rashid Choudhury said that before going to
Spain he had thought about selecting terracotta as his medium. In the class in Spain,
he was doing a portrait directly in oil without doing the drawing first. His teacher did
not approve of it. Nevertheless, he wanted to work the way he liked. Later on, his
teacher told him, ‘You are so proud of your skill in oil color but what is the medium
43
of your country?’ These words struck him. In Spain, he did only modeling for one
year. It is known from him that he had copied three works of Michealangelo in small
scale. He first saw the art of tapestry in Spain. After returning home, he noticed the
tradition of tapestry in our country and thought about taking it as his medium. Later
he went to Paris and took higher education in tapestry.
The second and the main catalyst in the change of the works of Rashid Choudhury was
his education in the tapestry medium. His tapestry teacher Jean Lurcat played a major
role in the change in his work. Lurcat said that he had started his career as an artist in
the Surrealistic trend. The main themes of his works were loneliness, hopelessness,
emptiness etc. ‘I did not want it so, but the war had graven a track into my hand. Oil
painting is too suave; not enough resistance. The raggedness of wool gave me joy-
liberation.’ 44 In 1937, Lurcat had seen the fourteenth century tapestry Apocalypse at
Angers and his thoughts on art went through a complete change. The power of
roughness of the tapestry medium had given him a sense of freedom and at the same
time the subject of the apocalypse had made him conscious about ancient traditions.

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 391


He had become inspired to return to tradition for the enrichment of his art. At a mature
age, he said about his philosophy of art, ‘...rooted in tradition... the tradition of the
middle ages, of the day of magic of griffons and unicorns! And the fields and the
45
firmaments!’ Lurcat created the images of wild animals and nature in his tapestries.
The symbolic and legendary animals like bull, cock, butterfly and birds of the middle
ages repeatedly found a place in his tapestries.
The artistic thought and subject of Lurcat had inspired Rashid Choudhury very much
and he had become interested to find his own tradition. He was able to express himself
fully after discovering the subject that he had been searching for for so long. He
became interested in the medium on the one hand and on the other, he started to depict
his own country and his tradition in his works. From this time onwards, he started to
develop his own character.
From the very beginning, the naming of his works was subject oriented. Before 1958, the
names were Collecting Shells, Boat, Portrait, Sitting Woman, Three Women. Later on
names like Nabanna, Farmer Couple, Radha-Krishna, Couple, Eve, Adam, Festival,
Dancing, Shyama, Mother, Face of Bengal etc. were repeated time and again. The
objects of folk art and the characters of folk life of Bengal became the subjects of his
works. He said, ‘I have chosen a very small space for my works. I want to grow from
here. I want to strike at the deep root of the mystery of life. I want to take my sensibilities
into a larger plane. Just think about the small seed of a banyan tree. How full of life it
must be to give birth to such an enormous tree. Yes, I the artist Rashid Choudhury paint
pictures, but one has to see if my identity is there, if I belong to my society, if my
language comprises of my identity. My artistic self belongs to that place, in that seed fig. 9.26 Festival-3,
which includes icons like elephant, snake, Srikrishna or Kali.’ 46 [Trans.] gouache, 1981
He also said that the love that came out of
47
nature always made him restive. He had seen
the thirst for love in the relationship of Radha-
Krishna, the snake gave him the imagery of
fierce love while he could imagine a bashful
love through the metaphor of the elephant. He
entered into his memory and the folk culture of
Bengal using his very strongly romantic
imagination and dreaminess and he searched
for the original form of Bengali folk perception
that had been flowing through the collective
subconscious of the people of this land. On the
other hand, he looked into the associations of
everyday life in search of signs and symbols to
create the visual totem of the Bengali nation.

392 ART AND CRAFTS


According to him, ‘Two things, individuality and an indigenous consciousness, what
may be termed as the perception of Bengali-ness are needed to be blended properly to
48
create modern art.’ His art was committed to this belief. He searched for his country
in tradition, and from tradition, he chose images through which he could express his
emotions. One can say he tried to transplant his sensibilities within folk images.
Rashid Choudhury worked in various media simultaneously. He worked with
gouache, tempera, watercolor, terracotta and tapestry. There is not much variation in
subject and composition of his works in different media. It can, however, be said that
the process of tapestry weaving controlled his compositions in all media. The main
characteristic of his compositions is the coexistence of vertical and horizontal lines.
Horizontal lines gradually create vertical line that ultimately ended in angular shapes.
The subject is depicted on the entire surface and it has been placed on a thick, dark
color. Like subjects, he also chose some definite colors. He used basic colors like deep
red, blue, yellow, green, black and white. His use of color created high contrasts of
light and shade. His subjects (Durga, Kali, elephant, Radha-Krishna, tree) were drawn
using small and big, straight and curved lines, sometimes circles, rectangles, half
circles; sometimes they took the forms of dots or leaves and they either emerged from
dark colors or merged gradually from light to darkness. His works did not involve the
concept of perspective but created the mystery of light and darkness. Along with that
we get a mood of design which does not give the feeling of mere design; rather we
reach into a sense of a world which is mysterious, dreamy, unreal and absurd.
fig. 9.27 Peasant Another characteristic of Rashid Choudhury’s works is the absence of the concept of
Woman-2, tapestry, 1979 time. There is no present or past – his strong dreaming mind traversed between his
memories and the present and back again. His works give an idea of an image without
time, which is natural, full of love and also indigenous. Borhanuddin
Khan Jahangir wrote, ‘Like Chagall he collected the elements of
dreams from human beings, trees, birds and animal and he
drove in the elements of dreams into human beings, trees,
the animal world so that it seems like one has grown
49
from the other.’ [Trans.]
The folk motifs that Rashid Choudhury used as the
main subjects in his works were not presented
with traditional interpretation. Neither did he give
them any new interpretation. Rather he
propagated his emotions and romanticism into
his works where man and woman, trees, animals
and birds all mingle together to give a happy
feeling of a lively world. In many of his works,
human figures and trees are presented in the same
manner. For example, the figures in Woman

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 393


(watercolor, 1980), Dark Woman (oil on canvas, 1985), Dark Woman (oil on canvas,
1985)(fig. 1.25), Flower (watercolor, 1985) look like strongly growing plants. In
many of his works we get the feeling of such plants or the atmosphere created by the
play of light and shade within bushes or thickets of trees. There is a definite rhythm
in the development of his works. They create a sense of movement, sometimes a
circular, dancing colorfulness (fig. 9.26).
While Lurcat had tried to gather strength from tradition, Rashid Choudhury tried to
discover his identity in the elements and arrangements of tradition. This variation
of the way of looking for inspiration from tradition moved their works in two
different directions.
The division of space on Rashid Choudhury’s canvas is not like that of the folk-art of
Bengal. His composition is western in style. This comes along with the traditional
images of deities – Durga with ten hands, the posture of Radha Krishna, raised hand
of Kali, which in most cases have taken the shapes of arches on the upper portion of
the picture. In many of his pictures, we find the form of an arch on the upper part and
a separate space on the bottom, which looks like a base. It seems that the subject is
standing on a base. For example, in the tapestries titled Adam (1979, 1981, 1982) (fig.
9.28) and Eve (1980), the subjects were developed as one single form. They were fig. 9.28 Adam-2,
presented somewhat like sculptures. tapestry, 1979
We can also find similarity of his compositions with the
compositions of sara painting (clay pot cover painting)
where the main subject is placed in the middle and the
associated matter spread in all directions. He did some
works on saras in the gouache medium. He also did
some tapestry in the round form of the sara. He has
successfully presented the convex, round form of a sara
in two of his tapestries, namely, Festival-1 (1975) and
Peasant Woman-2 (1979) (fig. 9.27).
As a mature artist, Rashid Choudhury became more
spontaneous in gouache, watercolor and, above all, in
tapestry rather than oil color. In the eighties, artist
Nisar Hossain (Professor, Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka
University) worked with him. He says, rather than
using oil color from the beginning he used to work with
powder color and then put a coating of oil color
afterwards. Perhaps he tried to save the time that oil
painting takes. 50 He did some terracotta. The subjects
were the same. For example, he did Universal in 1984.
Here figures of the man and woman were presented in
the middle. The man had a crown on the head. Perhaps
it is the image of Krishna or Mahadeva. Under the

394 ART AND CRAFTS


figures, one finds water where there were flower, fish and duck. On each side and the
top, there are trees, birds and all such elements of life. The work is done in bas-relief.
He used many lines and dots that were incised in this work.
Rashid Choudhury got pleasure from working with a number of media. He said,
‘There are obstacles in the traditional media. Therefore, I was searching for a medium
through which I could depict the nature and humans of my country. I found that
medium in tapestry.’ 51 [Trans.] Thus, he concentrated on tapestry. He gave it a
Bengali name. We know from the writing of Mahmud Shah Qureshi that he and
Rashid Choudhury gave tapestry a Bengali name. The word is ‘Tapestry’ in English
and ‘Tapisserie’ in French. 52 They formed the word ‘Tapisri’ in Bangla, meaning a
mat for the beautification of the wall.
He did a lot of commissioned work in tapestry. Rashid Choudhury called it a
secondary art like modeling. This is because one can make copies from the main work.
It increases its commercial possibilities. One can get a copy of a major work and
collect it. For example, Guernica was copied in tapestry for Rockefeller. He gave this
example to illustrate the fact that one has to draw first and then weave the tapestry.
Thus, the one that is copied is secondary but the main work remains. When a tapestry
is copied, the number of the copy must be mentioned as it is done in modeling or
printmaking. We understand from his sayings that he was more interested in the
artistic and social possibilities of tapestry rather than bothering about its classification
as a medium. It seems that he found immense joy in not only creating art in the
tapestry medium but also in the possibility of creating relationship between art and
people from different social strata through this medium.
Rashid Choudhury used indigenous materials like jute, silk, fur, cotton to make
tapestry. He worked with the carpet weavers who had come from Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh of India and were living in this country. He wanted to build up a village or
community in Mirpur with these weavers. Apart from these weavers, students and
artists who had graduated from art institutes also worked with him.
Contribution as an art organizer:
Rashid Choudhury was a man of action. In addition to his personal creations, he also
thought about the organizational side of art and felt responsible for contributing
towards it. He built institutions for art education. In 1968, the Fine Arts Department
was established in the Chittagong University. He joined there as the first teacher and
played a major role in developing this department. In 1972 he established
‘Kalabhaban’ (an art exhibition centre) and in 1973 he took the main initiative in
establishing the Fine Arts College of Chittagong.
He tried to organize artisans around tapestry. After returning to Dhaka from Paris in
1964, he established a tapestry factory consisting of one single loom. In 1981, he
returned to Dhaka from Chittagong and established a tapestry factory in Mirpur. He
wanted to build a ‘Tapisri Village.’ He made a draft plan of this village in 1984. Here
we can find a similarity with his thoughts and those of Zainul Abedin. He established
art education institutions like Zainul Abedin and he planned to form a tapestry village

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 395


like the planned artisans village of Zainul Abedin. Talking about Zainul Abedin,
Rashid Choudhury said, ‘The most significant contribution of Zainul Abedin was that
he paid attention to folk art. ... He had discovered our tradition.’ 53 [Trans] We
understand that the thoughts of his teacher on art had influenced Rashid Choudhury in
various ways right from the beginning.
We have already said that Rashid Choudhury was an extrovert man and he wanted to
blend the world of art with social activities. He was interested in different aspects of
art. He wrote poetry. We also know about his interest in music. In 1964 when he was
working as part-time teacher in the University of Engineering & Technology at Dhaka
he got involved with a new wave poet group of that institution named Naa (No). We
know from the writing of Professor Abul Mansur that he was a fan of Bauhaus
54
established by Walter Gropius. He wanted to build a full-fledged institution in line
with the concept of Bauhaus combining the Fine Arts department of the Chittagong
University and the Fine Art College of Chittagong. He wanted to establish an artist-
village in Chittagong also. He thought about building an art centre on top of a hill in
Chittagong. The idea was that artists would live and work there and there would also
be a sale centre. He could not fulfill these dreams but the art education institutions that
he built in Chittagong created an environment and a readiness for art practice there.
The present trend of art practice in Chittagong bears testimony to this.
Influence on the art of Bangladesh:
The main characteristic of the works of Rashid Choudhury is his effort to blend his
own tradition with modern western art. We can identify this trend as a prevalent one
in the art practice of Bangladesh. Many artists of Bangladesh have taken folk life and
folk art as their main sources of inspiration in creating modern art. We do not find any
apparent similarity of this process with the presentation of Rashid Choudhury’s works
but it seems that his thoughts about art have influenced them indirectly. The elements
in Rashid Choudhury’s works gradually assume obscure, unknown forms that are
semi-abstract. This very nature of presentation has become a major trend in the art
practice of Bangladesh. We can connect the art works of Rashid Choudhury directly
and indirectly with this trend.
The experiments of Rashid Choudhury with different media and his efforts to develop
a relationship between art and society have created the opportunity to inspire us to
think about on art in many ways. The experimentation with media and the closeness of
art with life that we find in the installation works and postmodern works of the new
generation of artists since the eighties might have been influenced by the philosophy of
art of Rashid Choudhury. At least we can say this much that the rhythm of the thoughts
on art of Rashid Choudhury is being heard continuously in his beloved Bangladesh.





Translated by Mahmudul Hossain, Editor, Drishyaroop, Dhaka

396 ART AND CRAFTS



f. Murtaja Baseer
Dhali Al Mamoon


Murtaja Baseer is a modern painter who may be termed an artist of dual entity in
whom the representational and abstract mingle in one. Murtaja Baseer was born on
17 August 1932 in Dhaka. The renowned scholar and multi-linguist Dr. Muhammad
Shahidullah was his father and Marguba Khatun, his mother. He was the seventh
among nine brothers and sisters. He was quite a daredevil in his boyhood; being the
son of Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah he had a kind of pride and arrogance in his
behavior. His father also had to receive many a complaints because of this. In 1948
when he was a student of class X, he fled the house hurt and offended, and went as
far as Lucknow. 55
In 1949, after passing matriculation, Murtaja Baseer was admitted to the Government
Institute of Arts (now Institute of Fine Art, Dhaka University). In 1954, he passed in
the First Division in painting and drawing. At the beginning of his career as an artist,
his work mainly followed western realism and the academic style in pictorial
language, but the themes reflected his perceived experience and surrounding
everyday life. Hotel in Buriganga (oil on plywood, 1953) deserves special mention
(fig. 9.30) among his paintings done as a student. The painting was influenced by the
Impressionist style.
After completing the study of art in Dhaka he participated in the four-month Art
Appreciation Course at Ashutosh Museum of Calcutta University. There he got the
famous art connoisseur Ordhendra Coomar Gangooly as his teacher. He took his first
lessons in sculpture and linocut in this period. During his stay in Kolkata he was
influenced by the pictorial language and style of the artist Paritosh Sen, just back
from Paris. A short visit to Santiniketan also added a new dimension to his experience
of art in this stay.
fig. 9.29 Murtaja Baseer On his return from Kolkata, in 1955 Murtaja Baseer served for about a year as
drawing teacher at Nawabpur Government High School, Dhaka. In 1956, he formed
an artists’group called ‘Painters Unit’with classmates Qayyum Chowdhury and Syed
Jahangir. In February the same year, they held a joint painting exhibition at Dhaka
Press Club.
Murtaja Baseer went to Florence, Italy for higher studies in 1956 and took lessons in
painting and fresco. His direct introduction with the works of pre-Renaissance and
Renaissance artists happened at this point. The two-dimensional quality of the
pictorial plane and well thought out organization of geometric structure in forms by
the pre-Renaissance artists inspired him deeply.
While a student in Dhaka, Murtaja Baseer got directly involved in leftwing politics.
He was even incarcerated for some time because of his part in political activities. The

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 397


works of his early phase bear the
imprint of political influence. Mention
may be made of his painting of Ila
Mitra, Waiting for Tomorrow (oil,
1955) in this context (fig. 9.31). Due to
his political consciousness, life of the
common people became the subject
matter of his work. Shortly afterwards,
while in Florence his paintings
portrayed the common people he saw
in the streets, footpaths and shops.
However, a significant change
emerged in his works during his
Florence period. Gradually he
detracted from the three-dimensional
image and concentrated on
constructing a two-dimensional
pictorial plane; at the same time,
instead of the actual and logical
presentation of visual reality, his paintings took a poetic form rich in fig. 9.30 Hotel in
symbolic implications combining many scattered images. In his works of this period Buriganga, oil on
the forms represented objects or shapes constructed of unbroken outlines and there is plywood, 1953
simplification in the use of color and shape, as well. ‘His conscious effort is noticed
in constructing a strong structure on the picture plane and indicating different
directions of motion with these lines intersecting each other.’ [Trans.]
56
In 1958, Murtaja Baseer formed an artists’ group named ‘Movimento Primordio’
(movement for primitivism) with Italian painter Rapisardi and sculptor Madonia. In
the first half of that year, they had a group exhibition in the city of Empoli, not far
from Florence and Murtaja Baseer had his first solo exhibition at La Parmanente
gallery of Florence.
Many critics have observed the integration of traditions of the east and west in Murtaja
Baseer’s works of the Florence period. Immediately afterwards, Pablo Picasso’s
influence is also observable in his notable oil paintings of 1959, Somnambular Ballad
and Music for Two Lovers. ‘Though the apparent influence of Pablo Picasso comes to
mind, Murtaja Baseer has been more inspired by Etruscan and fourteenth century
Italian drawings. However, his most favorite artist Picasso may well have remained in
his subconscious. Like Picasso, the figure of the solitary woman has repeatedly been
his subject. Scenes of local and European life, still life, etc. have appeared; in
57
comparison, nature is much less noticeable as his subject.’ [Trans.]
After completing two-years of higher studies in Florence with his father’s financial
support, Murtaja Baseer set off for London to try his luck instead of returning home.