Gritty realities of metro life

Comeback of the Shahid Muktijoddha (left) & nature

Road construction, the angst of city dwellers, a little touch of nature in the midst of concrete structures-- all these are the common elements of metro life in Dhaka. Artist Matlub Ali, whose approach is romantic, has used these elements to portray life in the city.

Matlub's six-day solo exhibition, titled 'Art expo: 60 small formats', began on November 18. The exhibition includes 60 selected works of the artist at the Zainul Gallery.

Most of Matlub's works are figurative and colourful. Through his imagination he has sought to express the lack of harmony between the metro elements and beauty of inner mind of the city dwellers. Bright colours such as green, blue, red, yellow and mixed shades have been used in the paintings. It's spring: with or without a bloom is an interesting painting in this group.

Using a green, yellow, red colour combination Matlub has depicted the harmony and serenity of spring at its zenith by portraying a small bush. The artist has unveiled the inner beauty of nature in the painting, which the denizens miss. In Vernal, a colour combination of red, pink, green and yellow, he has created a spectacular imaginary evening in the city life. Other paintings belonging to this group are Nature and Man series (4 pieces), Environment, Nature and Environment and Budding which also deliver almost the same thought and colour combination. However, the expression is different from each other.

Crows are an indivisible part of Dhaka city. Matlub's canvases titled Two crows, The crow drenched and The crow (1&2) show the harmony between fauna and nature in the metro.

In the Nature and Man series, Matlub depicts the bond between city dwellers and nature using a colourful watercolour medium.

Road construction is another common feature of Dhaka City, and logically it has drawn the attention of city artist Matlub. His paintings, A labour, Working woman and Road repairing-- depict the spirit of the working class. Boldness as well as the inner strength of the workers has been portrayed in a watercolour medium.

The pain and struggle of city dwellers are the other aspects of the exhibition. Most of Matlub's abstract works symbolically depict the psyche of the city dwellers' like dark sides, social turmoil that they face in the daily life, conflict between dream and reality and others. In this group are A poetry-memoirs, Disorder (1&2), A deprived woman, The distorted theme (a series of 10 watercolour painting), Searching for myself (a series of seven watercolour paintings), Collage: Wounded nature and deceived spring, and Collage of the time.

Comeback of the Shahid Muktijoddha, in coloured ink medium, is another interesting canvas in the exhibition. He has shown the triumph of the freedom fighters by portraying a figure breaking the barbed wire fence. Blue, green, red coloured ink have been used as the background of the painting.

Artist Matlub is an admirer of Rabindranath Tagore's paintings. A series titled Ode to Tagore Art style is included in the exhibition.

Matlub has used a colourful signature-pen in his drawings, titled Rhyme in beauty, Bijoyini and others.