Highlighting pastoral life and mysticism

Paintings by Mohammad Iqbal

Gallery Twenty One in Dhanmondi is organising a duet art exhibition titled “Dui Bangal”, featuring the paintings of Hashem Khan and Mohammad Iqbal -- the painters from two generations. The exhibition inaugurates today. This is a part of a two-series exhibition; one held here at Gallery Twenty One and the other at Gallery Chayamachi in Japan. The exhibition is also part of the Dhaka Art Summit which begins tomorrow.
Professors Burhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Muntasir Mamoon and Syed Manzoorul Islam, along with poet Rabiul Hussain will inaugurate the exhibition.
Vivacious colours, strong brush strokes, coarse lines and varied rural objects are the prime elements of Hashem Khan's paintings at the exhibition. Khan is a noted painter who has been contributing to the Bangladeshi art arena for over 50 years.
At the exhibition, many of his paintings highlight rural panorama and life in pastoral areas. Simple lives of the common people, flying birds, fishing, harvesting, sailing, moonlit night, boatmen and other common images from countryside life are common features in his works. He says rural life, with all its riches, is his most powerful

Paintings by Hashem Khan

inspiration. The artist has made a great attempt to change the composition. Green, red and yellow have been mostly used in his works on display at the exhibition. Various abstract forms and compositions also find a place on his canvas. Most of his forms and compositions give a touch of nature and its varied fascinating aspects.
Mohammad Iqbal is distinguished for his philosophical theme and experimental paintings. At the exhibition, his canvases are populated with various visible and shadowy figures. His protagonists on canvas are frequently underprivileged people and mysticism. The dissimilarity between the economic structures of different communities leads him into portraying their lifestyles. At the exhibition, Iqbal has painted bearded faces along with red clothing, beads, horn of buffalo, animals, talisman, middle-aged figures, ancient motifs, rivers, vessels, hills, sky and more. The painter has also portrayed many children's faces in the same disposition. Through the oval shaped faces, Iqbal and focuses on eyes and seeks to convey children's dreams, yearnings.