Creative journey

To make his 71st birthday memorable, internationally acclaimed painter Kalidas Karmakar undertook an artistic venture to portray a big (16X4 feet) canvas with colours that spoke of the glorious tales of our Liberation War. The theme for the performance art was “Alluvial Rhythm” and the art materials included alluvial clay, sand, acrylic colours and other traditional things.

The 71-minute long creative journey was accompanied with the rhythm of traditional musical instruments being played at the main auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum (BNM) -- the venue for his birthday celebration on January 10.

Several instrumentalists played dhol, dhak, flute and dotara to evoke his desired moods to depict the saga of our War of Liberation along with the country's history and cultural heritage.  

Karmakar began his work with his hands saturated in colours. For the awestruck audience present there, the maiden experience of watching a painting slowly coming to fruition and the drawing of marks across the surface of the canvas was not something they come across every day.

It is really interesting to watch such an unpredictable creative venture where the artist's motive seemed eluding to the eyes of the audience. Once it appeared as a face, or a bird, or some little greenery here and there, and the next all were blurred with a clean sweep. In the end, the painting turned out to be a distinctive Kalidas abstraction, with some forms and figures recognisable while others are not.

The art show was organised by BNM. Faizul Latif Chowdhury, director general of BNM, Ramendu Majumdar, president of International Theatre Institute (worldwide), Abul Khair, chairman of Bengal Foundation and Rubana Huq, managing director of Mohammadi Group were present at the occasion.

The artist's current exhibition “Alluvial Soul Soil and Symbol” is on at Nalinikanta Bhattasali Gallery of BNM and will continue till January 24.