Art

The Rhythm of Colours

Hamiduzzaman Khan, one of the master sculptors in the country, experiments with form and colour in his new exhibition

Fayza Haq

	Landscape 2, watercolour, 35.5x50.5cm, 2011. Image: Courtesy

In his latest exhibition at gallery Kaya, Hamid-uzzaman Khan displays numerous landscapes; there is the water and the clouds in shades of grey. Different shades of the same colour, blues gradating to Prussian blue; the yellow of the sand, disappearing to a pale off white; squiggles of colours appear on the dotted white sand– and changing shape and hue. They tend to show the hanging water, sky and land – of places the artist has been to in the past— in the span of a few months.

These include Bandarban in Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan. The gathering clouds, with electric lightening like forces were in the sky. The manner of dwelling of the people with the houses and the people gathering from the mountain or the plains mark different places and positions.

There is the passionate and powerful depiction of the overwhelming night riverscape — with people moving on the water at their own speed, with the boat appearing like a restless character in grey, amidst the surrounding water in shades of gentle blue turning to egret white. Hills, huts, and homes, emerging from the hills – all have personalities of their own.

The Bhutanese landscape has a design of houses that tend to be quite a thing apart, from the plains of Bangladesh, or the Maldives, with its particular Addu area. Spending more than a week in Bhutan, was unique indeed for a water- colour painter, who seeks waterfalls, plants and rocks containing the cascading and gathering pools of water. It was in Bhutan where, the artist found the light and shade treatment of the clouds. “I worked with my easel and paints when I left the hilly home, and came to the flat lands. Having travelled to Delhi, Santiniketan and Kolkata this time, added to my experience, with its rickshaws, and mouth-watering food, sold on the roadside, ” says Hamid.

The faces are forms in Hamid's sculpture, and when he sculpts, he simplifies the faces, which are often those of owls and other birds. At times the artist would take the image of the soaring bird, having the idea of the birds in sky.

Hamid takes tremendous pride in the sculpture work of The Open University that he had done. The work is enormous, took ages to be completed and very impressive.

Speaking of his sculpture with different medias, and at the request of different people, he talks of his favorite topic, the soaring bird. This takes place within the walls of an office, and appears as if they are flying away to new places in search of a dist ant horizon. They are huge in size and are difficult to handle. Hamid says that there are five hundred birds, in the collection and are made of metal. He tells us that he has done some work inside the United Hospital too, north of Gulshan and Baridhara. His work within the World Bank is impressive and breathtaking too. This too is enormous and found in a hanging shape, like the others.

As a sculptor, what is his sense of self satisfaction? Hamid says that he naturally feels elated at having achieved so much in the given space of time.

The work on the Open University, dealing with the 1971 Liberation War is of concrete. In Jahangirnagar University, in the 80s, he had done 'Sangshaptak', which is well-known. The artist laments the passing away of SM Sultan, Emdad Hussain, Safiuddin Ahmed, Mohammed Kibria and Aminul Islam. Speaking about his future topics, Hamid says that he will certainly work on the wealth of sculpture in Dhaka, such as drawings on the Rose Garden, on which Hamid has a hard-bound book.

Watercolours & Sculptures by Hamiduzzaman Khan, galleri kaya, May 24-June 6, (11am–7.30 pm)