Three German photographers—Sarah Rubensdörffer, Silvia Béres and Jakob Berr—went to a slum in Karail for a photo-story they had planned to highlight contrasting living standards on view in two adjacent residential areas of Dhaka: elegant Gulshan and the squalid Karail slum across the lake. They did not know that the visit would provide them with…
Ronnie Ahmed seems to dissolve the boundary of the familiar world in his recent paintings. And the movement is from a rational one to a metaphorical one. Sometimes Ronnie’s visions are apocalyptic and on many occasions they are paradoxical. Often, his pictures initially seem like a part of a greater puzzle that in the end…
Although Rafiqun Nabi’s (better known as Ranabi) Tokaii hasn’t changed in the slightest , the always-mocking cartoon character turns 25 this year. Ranabi’s exhibition of 100 recent wotercolours and 40 ink-and-pen drawings featuring Tokaii was held at Gallery Chitrak in Dhaka. Tokaii’s well-known appearance with a bald head, thin limbs and swollen belly, had been…
Bengala by Claudio Pacifico (English translation by Catherine Bolton)Edimond, 2000. Distributed by University Press Limited at Tk. 1800. Claudio Pacifico, surely, is one of the last romantics. Professionally a diplomat who entered the Italian Foreign Service after studying Law at Rome University and International Affairs at Winston Churchill College, Cambridge, he is by temperament an…
Shila Basak, Banglar Nakshi Kantha. Cover design Krishnendu Chaki, Embroidery Suryabarta, Santiniketan. Ananda Publishers, 2002, Rupees 1000, pp 326. Shila Basak’s Banglar Nakshi Kantha has fulfilled the need of those who have bought a kantha and would like to know more about it or have bought a book on kanthas and would like to have…
The infatuation was instant. I was intrigued. The sensory within me was stimulated by the sheer visual impact of what I saw in print. Then in the summer of 1999, while in London, I got to see a rare collection of original mid-19th to early 20th century specimens of the painted photograph. The experience was…
Dhali Al Mamoon lives and works in Chittagong, which is fast emerging as a major centre of art in Bangladesh. The Chittagong Art College, and the Fine Arts Department of Chittagong University, where Mamoon teaches, have provided space to a fine group of artists, many of whose works are distinguished by innovation, experimentation and a…
By a happy coincidence the Alliance Français and the British Council have sponsored exhibitions of the visual arts in recent months–exhibitions that have engagingly (on the whole) varied the fare in our galleries. The French effort is decidedly the better thought-out. Under the catchy rubric of ‘Un Avril Francais a Dacca’ (‘A French April in…
‘Love and Yearning: Mystical and Moral Themes in Persian Poetry and Painting’ Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., February 2004 Ann Rosenquist Fee ‘First, and foremost, Majnun is a poet and that sets him apart from others. He is able to create a sanctuary in his soul, from which he re-creates his love in the…
No longer considered esoteric, Tibetan artists have created a niche for themselves on the international scene and are now admired for their unique take on life, culture and modernity. Tibetan paintings draw heavily on three basic inspirations: religion, the colours, textures and tones of the local landscape, and a blend of Tibet’s traditional mores with…
