A treasure trove brought back home

Renowned artist and famous gallerist Goutam Chakraborty collected  thirteen valuable early works by eminent Bangladeshi artist-sculptor Hamiduzzaman Khan from England, around three months back. The original watercolours, done in the period from 1963 to 1969 by Khan were first exhibited in Chittagong Club, and later taken to Scotland, when he was in Edinburgh for treatment at E. R. I. following brain surgery.

Goutam Chakraborty, the Director of Galleri Kaya in Uttara, hosted an event showcasing two original watercolours by Khan along with the authentication certificate and a letter written by Bernard Edwards of Arts & Science, Scotland, to the then principal of Government College of Arts and Crafts, Dacca Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin at Dhaka Club on June 18.

Photo: Courtesy

Chakraborty pronounced the rare collection of the artworks in presence of Hamiduzzaman Khan, his wife artist-sculptor Ivy Zaman and a number of journalists.

According to the text of the authentication certificate, most of the collection includes Khan’s immediate pre and post-graduation works.

Photo: Courtesy

Solitude and serenity are vital aspects of his works, while lighting takes a prominent place in his composition of art. The artist generally prefers glowing light and mystifying settings. The translucent beauty of Kaptai Lake, Sadarghat, Rayer Bazar, a view from Mirpur and a view from Gachihata (the artist’s village) has been portrayed in several watercolour paintings, where the winter morning light gleams through a lane from Chittagong in one of his works.

Village scenes, resting boats, the onset of an evening, Chittagong hill tracts area and a masterful work of old Dacca are themes of the collected watercolours. The collection also includes two portraits of a boy (pencil on paper) and an old man (pen on paper). An art connoisseur is bound to take in the rasa of watercolour wash that Khan applied on his early watercolours. The bold and the beautiful brushwork with dark blue hues on paper are rather poetic.