The quaint rickshaw art of Nobo Kumar

Visitors at the exhibition.

“I've been painting for 20 years. I began my career by learning to paint banners for films. In 1990 I took part in a group exhibition with 83 other participants. Later, I got a job in Alliance Francaise thanks to Lesnier, the then director. In 2010, I had a solo exhibition at Alliance. Now my second solo is on,” says Nobo Kumar Bhadra whose rickshaw art is on display since June 14.

Born in Old Dhaka Nobo Kumar went to the East Bengal School till the sixth grade. He began painting cinema banners in 1982. In 1987 he leant under Sheitesh Shur. He has kept up the art of rickshaw painting for 25 years. His forte is painting the heroes and villains of old films. Their realistic and cinema poses have overwhelmed even experienced portrait painters. He deals with animals and birds along with scenes from the cinema. He is a favourite of foreign buyers because he does his art by hand. Each painting takes about a week. Along with his paintings, his trays, rickshaws and three wheelers are also popular as they are quaint and the prices are reasonable. People also appreciate the naïve art of birds, animals, flowers, and imaginary scenes of 1971.

He has done posters for “Nishan”, “Amar Shongi” “Taj Mahal”. Among the animals painted are lions, tigers, jackals, amphibians like crocodiles; and birds and swans, along with chickens and hens, as well as other birds like mynas. He has used plastic on melamine plate.

In one of the paintings we see a jackal carrying a crocodile along with a tiger and lion, pushing the cart through the town. In the background are high-rise buildings, clouds and birds.

In another painting, chicks are being stolen by a jackal, while the mother hen comes to the rescue. At the back are houses, haystacks and greenery of Bangladeshi villages.

There is again a large, fierce snake, being bitten by an eagle from the sky above. He has also shown birds drinking deep of honey from the flowers.

Nobo Kumar combines humour in many of his delineations. His pictures and other artifacts like the cycle and taxi along with the trays sell like hot cakes. This is because of the reasonable price and the appeal of the art to foreigners.