Master artists' works on display
Art connoisseur K Masum Billah's personal art collection was exhibited recently at Dhanmondi's Gallery Chitrak.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith inaugurated the exhibition while eminent artist Professor Qayyum Chowdhury presided over the ceremony.
Some 60 artworks by stalwarts of Bangladeshi and South Asian art -- including Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan, Safiuddin Ahmed, Mohammad Kibria, SM Sultan, Jogen Chowdhury, MF Hussain, Murtaja Baseer, Qayyum Chowdhury, Aminul Islam, Mustafa Monwar, Rafiqun Nabi, Abdur Razzaque, Hamiduzzaman Khan, Monirul Islam, Abul Barq Alvi, Alokesh Gosh, Ranjit Das and Ahmed Nazir were on display at the exhibit. The works were in a wide range of media including oil, acrylic, ink, watercolours and prints.
Saifuddin Ahmed's “On the Way to the Market” is a delightful work of chiaroscuro. The children and dogs follow without questioning, as they did in the past. So do the women, and servant like men in dhotis and women with loads on their heads. A man carries an umbrella, trees line the path and so the procession goes on.
There is a sketch by Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin with nude figures in which certain portions are significant while the rest of the canvas is left empty and grey.
Qamrul Hassan's woman bathing in the peace of her bathroom with her long hair being swept dry with the stroke of a towel brings in the harmony and simplicity of rural life with broad strokes of the ink and brush. The delicateness with which the hair, torso and limbs have been done is remarkable. Like Safiuddin, he manages to say so much in so few lines and colours.
The pale colours applied in Shilpacharya's work brings in the truth of boats, poles, fishermen on the riverbank returning home from the day's task, other abiding with their boats portray a life of peace and harmony. The pale finding orange and earthy colours lend the effect of time on pale water colours.
We admire SM Sultan's portrayal of Bangladeshi fishermen, stronger than what they actually are, plying boats with houses, trees and purple clouds cascading in the sky. The beige of the men against the blue of the water is realistic and welcome. The idyllic picture puts men's jumbled mind in peace.
The grey and blue abstraction by Aminul Islam can give rise to whatever the viewer wishes to conjure up. The figures could be heads of horses, bisons, dragons or whatever fancy and imagination could usher in.
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