Colours and Contours of Restlessness

Gallery Chitrak

Dhaka December, 2003

Abdul Muqtadir’s canvas captures not only the intimate dimensions of the visible world but also the means of communication with the world. ‘Yet, in me,’ declares the artist, ‘is a yearning to know what lies behind the tactile world.’ There is a compulsion in him, he says, to explore the forms and colours of nature in their intricate interrelationships. ‘I look at the trees, meadow, and rivers. In everything I discover a colourful objective reality of interrelated elements. I sense colour even in the non-material elements that touch my sense. There is red, blue, green and yellow; and there is white, which in effect is a perfect setting for all these radiant colours.’

Contours in Muqtadir’s painting bring out the dynamism and depth of colours. The spectrum of colours often becomes a world of infinite contours. The varying degrees of intensity of all these colours are seen endlessly in motion within these contours. There is harmony because these do not step out of the contours. But chaos occurs the moment the contours are breached. ‘I also feel that the contours are spontaneous, flexible, sensitive, expandable and compressible. They remain bound and inter-linked. It is here that I see a play of relationships, of attraction and repulsion, acceptance and rejection’, adds Muqtadir.

An untitled painting presents figures of Adam and Eve in shades of brown, with the symbol of the apple placed over the faces of the ancient lovers, and with Eve holding on to a smaller version of the apple, and the serpent circling them. The rest of humanity is seen outside the circle and they, as the painter puts it, have suffered from the loss of innocence. Muqtadir elaborates: ‘I consider colours to be fragments of invisible light, which we in our culture know as noor. I have tried to focus on the story that has come down in the revealed religions and portrayed humanity in the backdrop depicted in browns and mauves. The proportions of colours can be seen in the contours.’ The fine lines of the innumerable contours are depicted by fine brushwork that glide and swirl around the colours in Muqtadir’s inimitable style.

Another picture shows the wings, the tails and the beaks of a dove surrounded by eyes of more birds. The surrounding, Muqtadir explains, is chaos within orderly dispositions. The relation of the dove with its backdrop is the contrast of peaceful images with frightening ones. ‘I’ve tried to divide and take out each variation of shades which brings into focus the relationships and the theme of a search for harmony,’ the artist says. Some of the images are done in clear details while others are more fragmented and juxtaposed willy-nilly. The theme of disorder is presented along with the contrast of a neat composition set on a quixotic background. This painting, like the others, has no title, as the artist wants the viewer to read it the way he wants to and not be fixed by any name.

In yet another painting, a game board with snakes and ladders and a relatively large dice indicates an amassing of contours. The theme of destiny, with the snakes and ladders suggesting the ups and downs of lifethe focus being on death and eternal peaceis easily comprehensible. A red dot heightens the dramatic effect. The mosaic effect is characteristic of Muqtadir.

Gallery Chitrak Dhaka December, 2003 Abdul Muqtadir’s canvas captures not only the intimate dimensions of the visible world but also the means of communication with the world. ‘Yet, in me,’ declares the artist, ‘is a yearning to know what lies behind the tactile world.’ There is a compulsion in him, he says, to explore the…