Art
Razzaque in retrospective
Exhibition of Abdur Razzaque's paintings at "Chitrak"
Fayza Haq
Although over 70, Abdur Razzaque is an active artist and his recent exhibition at "Chitrak" is a proof of his consistent creative genius. Razzaque has been associated with the modern art movement in Bangladesh from its outset and the prints, drawings, water colour, oils, acrylic and mixed media seen at the exhibit, include his student years in USA, decades back. Whenever he visited a place, be it the Sunderbans or Ankara (Turkey) or Baltimore (USA) he brought back some delightful impressionistic landscape from that area. Razzaque said, "There are some new works in the exhibition. At the same time a continuity has been maintained starting from my student life's work, some of which have not been exhibited before. I graduated in 1954 and before me were Aminul Islam and Bijon Chowdhury. Our teachers were Zainul Abedin, Shafiuddin Ahmed and Quamrul Hassan. First I worked more directly from nature but now my work is semi-abstract. However, even when I have moved away from realism, I still get my ideas from nature, which are reflected either in form or colour, as some of the works are colour based, while others are form based. "There is no isolated work. When I see the biennials, I'm more than sure that our work, in Bangladesh, is a combination of the ideas and styles of the east and west. Western philosophy pervades my work, which is natural, as I've had my later training in USA. Among the painters I liked Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Mark Rothko, Joan Miro, Vasili Kandinsky and Marc Chagall and I was naturally inspired by them to some extent. This is although I have my own style and hope to change and improve in future with a particular message." Speaking about the problems he faces during his work, Razzaque said, "I am not cut off from society and it is natural that when there are social, economical and political upheavals, I too am affected by them. Even though the impact may be indirect, yet they are there. As regards obtaining materials, I have got what I require for my painting and sculpture without much difficulty. I had done my Masters in print making but because of lack of equipment I've shifted on to other mediums. Most of the works in this exhibit are paintings while some drawings too have been included." In "Cityscape" one found crayon and water colour. This presented the skyline of a city without definite edges to the shapes, which blended with the trees and lawns in front and the sky in the backdrop. "Suburb" was a splash of green, black, brown and red, with the lines and strokes merging into one another. The work had been done on grained paper. "Monsoon", a water colour had clouds in gray, brown, red on a background of white. A portrayal of Munshiganj, "Haregaga", brought in fences and a bridge leading up to houses, boats, trees and hills in the backdrop. People had been included in the composition too. "Badda" had a lot of trees, fields with ripening paddy and haystacks. The trees were in shades of green while the sky was mauve, pink and white. "Jaflong", in Sylhet, brought houses in front and clusters of mud. This was in streaks of burnt sienna, green, blue with a pinkish blue sky. "Buriganga" included three boats in brown and black while more splashes of black brought in the swirl waves, with a gold sky on top. Scenes from his visit overseas brought "Maryland" in acrylic. A burst of shades of orange brought in the autumnal ambiance. This was combined with delicate strokes of black, brown and green. "Ashley" had a vast expanse of sky in blue with houses and trees perched at the bottom. A serpentine river was seen flowing in between. "Iwoa" river brought in a bridge crossing over the space with a singe figure. This was one of Razzaque's student days work. Pressed charcoal had brought in a drawing of the head of a bison. A lithograph brought in an abstract compositions of lines and space, some being distinct while the others were hazy and suggestive. Another composition was also a black and beige abstraction with tonal gradation in the distribution of black to divert your mind from the feast of impressionism. Abdur Razzaque has exhibited in Washington (USA), Ankara, Istanbul, Berlin, Dresden, Poland, Paris, New Delhi, Hong Kong and Beijing. He got the "Ekushey Padak" in 1989. The same year he got the "Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Shangshad" award.
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