Giorgio: The thing that strikes me about your art work is the prevalence of political references, especially from Western political ideologies of the 70’s. I’m curious to see if you were also influenced by the art movements of the West? Dhali: There is no way that I can avoid Western influence and there are many […]
Ziaul Karim At first glance one sees a crudely done pen drawing of human figures on a tracing paper; but a closer look lets the viewer discover that the playful figures on the semi-transparent paper are scribbled on a close-up photo of a fashion model’s seductive and luscious lips. One realizes soon that this drawing […]
“Ephemeral/Perennial” is an attempt at exploring the medium of performance in the context of today’s Bangladesh. This inquiry was urgent: the growing numbers of local practitioners and their commitment to redefine the conventional understanding of the medium have triggered the development of various, specific languages and practices. In the wake of this boundless activity, the […]
Architect Kazi Khaleed Ashraf gives an introductory lecture on Symposium: When The Jamuna Meets the Rhine. Accompanying programme to the exhibition: ‘Bengal Stream’ at Swiss Architecture Museum. Published on you tube, Dec 8, 2017 by S AM Schweizerishes Architekturmuseum
Kerstin Gürke, Berlin If written images are not only read as text but seen and emphasised as colours and forms, then in the eye of the observer the text changes into an image. “Rational reading” shifts to “irrational seeing”. Can both forms of perception exist simultaneously? Levels of content and form interact and move […]
Syed Azizul Haque With his lifelong devotion to art, Safiuddin Ahmed has greatly enriched the tradition of drawing and oil painting in our country, besides making pioneering contribution to graphic art. His works display a wide experimental range, reaching out from academic pursuits to embrace some contemporary trends in European art. The result has been […]
Lala Rukh Selim Dilara Begum Jolly’s critique of society seeps through its layers, from the all-encompassing arena of global politics, narrowing down to the national, the tribulations of women, the ravages of war and its impact on humanity and civilization, myth and religion. These layers are collected in formal groups and depicted in the language […]
In Bangladesh, women who are engaged in the visual arts, often find themselves negotiating an adverse territory as they seek to locate themselves within a tradition where they have been historically discriminated against and which has been defined in male terms. While some women have dealt with these issues through deconstructing the visual imagery, others have disparagingly […]
ড. বোরহানউদ্দিন খান জাহাঙ্গীর শিল্পীর স্বাভাবিক প্রতিবেশ হচ্ছে বাস্তব। বাস্তবকে সবসময় খুঁজতে হয়, কামরুল হাসানের কাজে এই খোঁজার শেষ নেই। বাস্তবের উলটো কাল্পনিকতা নয়, বরং বাস্তব থেকে কাল্পনিকতা তৈরি হয়। কামরুল হাসান, তাঁর কাজে, এই বিরোধ ভুল বলে ভেবেছেন। ঘটনা হচ্ছে বাস্তব মুষ্টিবদ্ধ করার এক উপায়, বাস্তব ঘটনা থেকেই তিনি কাল্পনিকতা নির্মাণ করেছেন। শিল্পী মাত্র, […]
Syed Manzoorul Islam The present exhibition Unseen Splendour owes its origin to a serendipitous discovery of a small trove of SM Sultan early drawings and watercolours in the possession of Mr. Abul Kasem Joarder, who was a teacher at Jessore Michael Madhusudan College in the 1950s. Mr. Joarder was a friend of Sultan and on […]
Pioneering artist Zainul Abedin began the Institute of Art in Dhaka with just two small rooms, eighteen students, and a Herculean effort. Immediately after the Partition of 1947, the newly-formed Pakistan was openly sceptical towards modern art in a tradition-based society. Despite religious and cultural pressures, political and environmental turmoil, this revolutionary initiative eventually evolved […]
Upheavals examine the ambiguous power of change through three generations of artists from Bangladesh. The notion of transformation carries a potent paradox, one that pits the aspirational – where the old can be subsumed in a new, bettered state – against the sinister – through which what initially was is either destroyed or no longer […]
Old Dhaka, now more a place of nostalgia and lost charm, is where the main city once was. It is also where the first art school was established next to the Victoria Park and under the red water tank beside the National Medical School. This is where Qayyum Chowdhury, a prominent name in the world […]
Saif Ul Haque Saif Ul Haque (SH): Let us start with your forthcoming show at the newly opened Bengal Art Lounge. Wakilur Rahman (WR): I am hoping that this is going to be an interesting show as I have decided to put into exhibition a selection of works from the year 1994 to 2009, a […]
