Calligraphy at its best
In the 7th Calligraphy Exhibition, recently held at the National Museum, was the work of the eminent artist Murtaja Baseer, who had stirred up the art world with his display of line and colour in 1997 with his 37 water colour calligraphy work, providing a marvelous display of line and colour to present religious motifs like rosary or prayer mats. Here too his greens, ochre, mauve and indigo brought a world of abstraction to the scope of calligraphy. Baseer has held solo exhibits at UK, Japan, France, Iran, Hong Kong and numerous other places. Renowned artist Abu Taher, too showed lyricism and love for the divine in his lettering that merged with one another in the front and back. Abu Taher had used a lot of blue, green, brown and yellow. Like Baseer, he too is a winner of the "Ekushey Padak", and has held 10 solo exhibits. Dr Abdus Sattar, at present the Director of the Institute of Fine Arts, DU, has also contributed to the calligraphic display with his angular mystical lettering, framed in brick red, indigo and black. He has taken part in 18 solo exhibits.
Among the younger promising artists at the exhibition were Ibrahim Mondol who has worked with tradition and abstraction to create a three dimensional effect. Mondol has two awards to his credit. Trained in Riyadh, Shahidullah Bari has taken part in four calligraphy exhibitions. Bari has created a world of his own by combining different Naksh styles. Arifur Rahman, who is well versed in the computer is basically a graphic artist. He combines various mediums in his work. Apart from canvas and paper, Bangladeshi artists have expressed themselves in other mediums too. Sculptor Rasha has done good work too by carving Arabic words from religious verses.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Aminul Islam Amin is another dedicated calligrapher with promise, as is seen in his depiction of Sura Fateha, Sura Ikhlaq and Kalima, which were all combination of geometrical patterns. Mahbub Murshed, an apprentice of SM Sultan has also contributed to the collection of calligraphy as have also Muhammed Amirul Haque and Kh.Muniruzzaman.
It was heartening to see that women too had participated in the quest for calligraphy. This included Masum Aktar Mili, Ferdousy Begum and Ferdous Ara Ahmed, who has written two copies of the Holy Quran by hand in henna.