Six decades of contemporary art in Bangladesh / Chapter 4 of all 6 chapters

Takir Hossain

^Anisuzzaman

In the mid 1990s, a big change took the place in Dhaka’s art circuit when a number of cerebral painters started looking for new language and new technique. Installation, animated photography and videography were introduced largely in the time. Thought at first Hamiduzzaman Khan introduced installation in Bangladesh in 1978 where he focused on historical natural disaster Urir Char Cyclone (The incident occurred in 1985).

Besides these genres of art, a number of  earnest painters regularly exhibit their works and they have tried to establish a personal language. Among them, Mustaque Ahmed, Nasima Queenie, Asma Akbar, Aloptogin Tushar, Proshanta Karmakar Buddha, Anisuzzaman Anis, Anukul Majumdar, Shamsunnahar Lovely, Sobahan Hira, Dulal Chandrow Gain, Zahir Hossain Newton, Rashid Khan, Rashed Kamal Russell, Ashraful Hasan, Kamruzzaman Sagar, Nagarbasi Barman, Rezowan Pilow, Mohammad Razwanur Rahman, Shahanoor Mamun, Shohag Parvez, Sultan Ishtiaque, Biplob Kumar Das, Arifur Rahman, Mobasshier Mojumder, Tarek Amin, Fakhrul Islam Shakil have widely drawn the attention of art connoisseurs and art enthusiasts. We need to highlight their works too.

Mustaque Ahmed (1956-) is a socially and politically conscious painter, who has been quite active in the Dhaka art scenario for a long time. Whenever the country plunges into a turmoil, he lends his hands to depict the situation intensely. The arrangements of the characters in the paintings is also quite unquestionably unique and expressive. In his paintings, one feels the lament of a lonely soul, an underlying sorrow and an impression of desolation. Mustaque is very thorough with his use of tiny ambiguous forms and the overall fundamental compositions. Sometimes black is the predominant shade in his works and the artist experimented with layers of the colour. His lines have created an aura where one can learn about his diligence, longing and devotion to art. Mustaque scrupulously uses brush for his hallmark technique. The space feels open and large, clearly emphasising each moment and time. He applies the colours directly, and then meticulously polishes them according to their artistic requirements.

Nasima Khanom Queenie (1963-)  could be tagged a semi-abstract painter. Her seemingly effortless compositions bear the skeletal footprint of the intricate organic structures of foliage and leaves. To illuminate the natural world she employs a gaze informed by the microscopic glimpses into the hidden substrate of natural life-forms. Therefore, there appears to be a defamiliarizing strategy with the creation of mystifying settings, however much may they be overwritten with human figures revealed on patterned planes.

Proshanta Karmakar Buddha (1965-) lends his strong voice through pure realism. He does not confine himself with any singular theme and working process. He has worked on varied themes and has always tried to capture the theme’s minutiae through his personal language and style.  He has done a series of works articulating riverine life, the Bede (gypsy) lifestyle, snake charmers, Liberation War, Language Movement and other subjects. Fearless force in the form of horses, bold eyes and Bengali letters is a recurring theme in his paintings. Sandals, empty pots, flowers, women’s visage, and their children are common subjects in his works.

Zahir Hossain Newton (1965-) embarked on his voyage from Oriental to abstract art around the beginning of the current century. As a student of the Craft Department, Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University, he was immersed in portraying human relationships, nature and aves. Eventually the painter realised that the rigours of craft art were not suitable for his modernistic sensibilities. He then entered into in a new orbit of lines, colours, forms and texture when he found a dominant facet in art, which is distinctive, imaginative and cerebral. To art lovers, his works appear as pieces of cloud where he cultivates his pain, yearning, happiness and desire. His present approach can be considered as pure abstract expressionism. He comprehends nature and its varied elements appear with him in a vibrant way. His works appear as pieces of land where he cultivates his mind’s perception and philosophical experience.

Aloptogin Tushar (1968-) lent to express his creativities through varied mediums. The painter who likes to make portraits of renowned man and women representing different eras in the sub-continent. These individuals have left legacies. They have reformed and reshaped the South Asian society. They are no more today but their contributions remain relevant in our daily lives. He has also poraryed nubile women in all their curvaceous beauty. One of his famous themes was “Nachol Bidroho”, where the charcoal based drawing shows the Santals waging a war armed with bows and arrows. Tushar has a great passion to work on historical events. Through the series of works, the painter recollects the Santali peasant revolution of 1949-50 in which the Santal community in Nachole area under Chapai Nawabganj sought to establish their rights over their land.

Shamsunnahar Lovely (1969-) is simultaneously a painter, photographer and Tagore artiste. Blossoming and budding flowers as well as trees are recurring features in her paintings. She mainly dealt with the seasonal flowers in the country.  Brightness is a predominant aspect in her works as the images look very lucid and tranquil. She occasionally likes to experiment with diverse vague and plain forms, and enjoys breaking and constructing them in many ways. Her very picturesque and appealing natural observation is profoundly embedded in her psyche and her watercolour and mixed media based paintings are created spontaneously with her skilled hands brushing colours in the easels. The painter uses close-up views of the branches of trees containing patches of flowers of different colours and then changes the work by splashing colour pigments.

Sobahan Hira (1970-) engaged himself as an experimental printmaker. As he is an intense onlooker, nature and its varied mysterious chapters, the changing human life, frustrations and despairs of urban and rural life, disadvantaged and deprived people of the society, common people and their way of life have been immensely etched in his softened mind. As an abstract expressionist, Hira concentrates on untainted forms and opuses where red, pale yellow, black, white and soothing sapphire.

Anisuzzaman (1972-) has now become one of the significant woodcut printmakers in the country and his work zooms in on urban architecture, construction of human accommodation, urban constructions, and a city’s structural design. His prints are closely related to geometrical and structural elements where one can easily sense his passion for the language of architecture. It has also been closely observed that the printmaker unintentionally focuses on the sights of our surroundings which are unnoticed and somehow ignored by the city dwellers. He has his own perception and thinking process to view the capital city. Anisuzzaman is a perfectionist by nature. His prints look neat and clean, and always avoid ornamentation. For technical aspect, he has a great fascination for oil based woodcut. When he was staying in Japan, he experimented with the medium for a prolonged period. During the time, he learned how light and shade can give a dramatic effect on prints. He has also done many prints with water based woodcut in different periods in his career. He has constantly used multiblock in his prints and the technique gives him a liberty to add dimension to his works.

… To Chapter 5

About the Writer
Takir Hossain is an art critic and cultural curator. He has been writing on contemporary Bangladeshi art and culture for a long time. His keen interests are on art and literature. As an art critic, his criticisms have been incorporated in many reputed artists’ books, brochures, national and international art journals as well as many other varied forms of creative publication. On many occasions, the critic has presented keynote papers for national and international seminars. He has also graced the position of a jury member in a number of art competitions and carnivals. In his vibrant career he has covered several international exhibitions held in different countries across Europe and Asia.
The writer can be reached at takir75@gmail.com