‘Breaking Ground: Modern Art in Transition’ opens today

The art exhibition, Breaking Ground: Modern Art in Transition, organised by Bengal Shilpalay, opens today at Subir Choudhury Exhibition Hall in Dhanmondi. Riva Ganguly Das, the High Commissioner of India in Dhaka, will inaugurate the exhibition as the chief guest. Renowned artist Professor Nisar Hossain, Dean, Faculty of Fine Art, University of Dhaka, will attend the event as the special guest. Breaking Ground: Modern Art in Transition will conclude on February 15, 2020.  

The exhibition showcases the works of modern and pioneering Bangladeshi and Indian artists in a new light. Bengali modernism was a contextual practice drawn from the subcontinent’s traditions of courtly and folk art, as well as lessons of the various modern and contemporary creative movements from the West. The artists from the region explored tradition, reviving ancestral forms and incorporating a rich folk culture into their works, to come up with a fine balance between tradition and modernity. Rural landscapes, geographies, people, and their connection with nature’s nuances and dimensions played an important role in defining the artists’ approach. The geometric organisation of forms were often replaced by organic sensibilities, through which sharp, precise and definite shapes were transformed into soft, free forms and earthy expressions. The exhibition aims to introduce the aesthetic leanings of early practices, which led to the wave of modernism in art in this part of the world. The featured artists of the exhibition are Aminul Islam, Gaganendranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Kazi Abdul Baset, Mohammad Kibria, Murtaja Baseer, Qayyum Chowdhury, Quamrul Hassan, Ramkinkar Baij, Rashid Choudhury, Safiuddin Ahmed, S M Sultan and Zainul Abedin.

Photo: Courtesy

Photo: Courtesy

The team behind the exhibition selected an array of works from the rich collection of Abul Khair, the Chairman of Bengal Foundation, and included works of influential modernist forerunners from the 1930s onwards. Tanzim Wahab, the curator of the exhibition, inspired several talented research associates of the Bengal Arts Programme to engage in their creative endeavours and inputs to successfully showcase the artworks. Priyanka Chowdhury, a research associate of the exhibition, recently gave The Daily Star team a guided tour of the show.

Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin’s Tea Stall and S M Sultan’s painting on the 1970 cyclone are two of the rare paintings on exhibit at the event. A mother is seen suckling her baby, while a heap of corpses is amassed at the offshore in Monpura, Bhola, in S M Sultan’s cyclone painting. The digital display of uncommon sketches and drawings by several featured artists, together with the books, magazines, photographs and antique crafts attribute a unique quality to the exhibition.

The audience will have the opportunity to revisit old times by going through the Kherokhata (diaries) of Quamrul Hassan, a book of letters and essays by Jamini Roy, a book titled Ramkinkar, a special issue of Kali O Kalam on Mohammad Kibria and rare photos of the master painters, among other things, at the exhibition. “Abul Hasnat, Editor of Kali O Kalam, contributed the books for the exhibition, while Luva Nahid Choudhury, Director General of Bengal Foundation, provided her collection of Kazi Abdul Baset’s artworks,” mentioned Priyanka Chowdhury. “Quamrul Hassan’s famous sketches, one of his portraits by Nasir Ali Mamun and photographs describing his participation in various socio-political movements with texts, are also on display. We are also installing three videos on S M Sultan, Gaganendranath Tagore and Murtaja Baseer.” Upon entering the gallery, the view of Rashid Choudhury’s life-sized tapestry will marvel the visitors. Safiuddin Ahmed’s shimmering prints, titled On the Way to the Fair and Flood, along with his captured and developed photographs, his book published by Skira and Bengal Foundation and a rare sketch book, coupled with its digital display, are also on exhibit. In addition, beautiful paintings and illustrations by Qayyum Chowdhury, masterpieces by Mohammad Kibria, Aminul Islam’s rare paintings and Safiuddin Ahmed’s unique oil paintings are some of the many notable works at the exhibition.