Third in a series of monographs on art, this book, though the text accompanying  the reproductions is shoddily written, performs the commendable function of affording us a glimpse of the full range of the ouevre of a sensitive and dedicated artist working in less than congenial circumstances. Her father was court jeweller (i.e. a designer…

The appearance of this handsomely produced album of reproductions offers us an opportunity to make a critical survey of the career of one of our most prolific and highly regarded artists. I am using the broader term advisedly, for though sculpture does seem to be Hamiduzzaman’s major mode of creative expression, he is a remarkably…

The Zainul Gallery at Dhaka University’s Institute of Fine Art was the recent venue of the debut show of the Hyacinth Garden Gallery. The show was given the ominous title of ‘The Tarantula’ and described in the subtitle of the catalogue as ‘A Multidisciplinary Group Exhibition.’ Symbolism seems to fascinate the moving spirits behind the…

Juneer Kibria is of course Kibria, Jr.—though, with commendable independence of spirit, he has kept the information out of the catalogue of his first solo, recently held at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts Intriguingly, the catalogue mentions that his date of birth was 21 February, but the year, though given at first has been…

The focus of Syed Jahangir’s 34th solo exhibition, which was held in Saju Art Gallery in Dhaka from 24 September to 4 October 2005, appears to be the land and its people. In the absence of an exhibition theme, this focus strings the works together into a loose series. Displaying a common passion for the…

Over the years, Kalidas Karmakar’s work has added a modernist metaphysical dimension to his art. The influence of the Tantric tradition had something to do with this shift, as a series of exhibitions titled Holy Image and Holy Symbol, beginning in the 1990s testify, but equally important have been his environmental concerns and his search…

As a member of the avant-garde Fluxus movement, Joseph Beuys was interested in  the way meaning is produced in society. Central to Fluxus is the idea that art is a part of nature and should therefore be founded on the universal processes of flux and change. In the process, the public ‘concerts’ of the Fluxus…

The first quarter of the nineteenth century saw British authority deeply and extensively entrenched in India. Interest about the newly colonized land and its people went on increasing in the west. A large number of visiting artists from Britain and Europe took up their residence in Bengal and some of these artists interested themselves, not…

What associations come to the mind of a person who doesn’t know Bangladesh at all when she or he encounters the word “Dhaka”? Of course, the answer is that different people will have different associations and mental pictures, however vague. So too with “Berlin” to those who haven’t visited Germany. But, given modern history, it…

Sheherezade’s personal journey with clay began in the 1970s in Lahore when she became one of the first few graduates of The National College of Arts with a major in Ceramics. Her prolific career that stretches over three decades and two continents places her among the influential exponents of this art form in Pakistan The…