Berlin has certainly become one of Europe’s foremost artistic centres now. On any given evening, the curious visitor can plunge himself into anything from the world of experimental dance, 12th century German paintings, or home-grown jazz. The arts and culture section of Berlin’s leading listings magazine Zitty is filled with pages of dense, small-font recommendations…

On a chilly winter morning at four a.m. we installed ourselves on the pond steps of  an old house at Amin Bazar on the outskirts of Dhaka. The cold seeped through our sweaters and shawls and into the marrow of our bones, so that we shivered together in the darkness. With stiffened fingers, the camera…

The harvest of art exhibitions in London last autumn was indeed a rich one. From sumptuous Gainsboroughs to austere Barnett Newmans, late 19th/early 20th century masters to the conceptualist nullities of the Turner Prize shortlist, portraits of Byron, the supreme Romantic icon, to those of romanticised Indians commissioned by Queen Victoria, there was varied stimulation…

The only time I properly met the incomparable M. F. Husain (discounting, that is, the occasional fleeting handshakes in crowded gatherings) was in New York in 1993, over dinner at the home of the then Indian Ambassador, Hamid Ansari. Sitting before the book-laden coffee table in the Ambassador’s Park Avenue living room, I recounted to…

A number of years ago, when I was in Perth on the first leg of a trip across Australia, I was fortunate enough to be hosted by the distinguished academic, Sister Veronica Brady, a member of the order of Loreto noted for her work with and on behalf of Aboriginals.  We talked about my impending…

The twenty-first century is already upon us. E-mails and online auctions have become the order of the day. The world is no more the same. When I was growing up we had a single radio in the house that would be played only at certain hours. But some things remain constant: the magic of the…

A co-founder of Bangladesh’s first cooperative photo agency, MAP, Mahmud has been living among the indigenous people of Bangladesh and photographing them for almost a year now. The photo essay by Mahmud gives an insight into the life and culture of the vanishing indigenous people of the country. A few years ago I came across…

Rickshaws are to Dhaka what Jeepneys are to Manila and Tuktuks are to Bangkok – eccentric forms of public transport that add colour and a certain anachronistic flavour to the city traffic. But the similarities end there, for rickshaws are manually driven, slow, and featherweight vehicles that look more like some medieval contraption than a…

In the work of Abdus Shakoor the rich tradition of Bangladeshi folk art comes alive in all its vibrant colour schemes and design patterns.  Shakoor has closely studied traditional art forms. His interest in old ballads and his intense curiosity about life in rural Bengal have shaped his art language. Refreshing and riveting, Shakoor’s canvas…

The history of the arts reflects the ever-changing dynamics and flow of cultural metaphors between people and nations. Looking at recent changes in the development of dance in Bangladesh, for instance, we come across interesting exchanges with neighbouring lands. Thus we can trace the effects of Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathakali, and Manipuri styles on our…