A charismatic creator of symbols

Daily Star: How would you compare your lifestyle now with that of the days when you were a student and had to sometimes resort to living on boats or at the mercy of some whimsical landlord?

Kalidas Karmakar: I once lived on the boats of Buriganga and made my way to the Art College, after crossing Hatkhola and the University in the early 60s. Today I think as a man there is not much of a change in me. Perhaps my appearance is different. I've lost a lot of my hair as in a couple of months I'll be 60 but in my mind and soul I'm the same individual. The inner character of a poet or painter or the force that guides him doesn't ever change. It will get a different colour or shape due to the socio-economic changes in environment.

DS: Will you say something about your days in Poland, Paris, Japan and USA? Did you enjoy them?

KK: I always wanted to go overseas and see the works of the old masters. During my early days in Dhaka and Kolkata, I had the opportunity to study the reproductions and through the books in the libraries I mentally travelled to the museums overseas. When my first solo in 1967 was a financial success and I had some funds I decided to go abroad. I got a scholarship to Poland later, but when I left my country I was not sure of this. I gave up my lucrative job in the textile design sector and flew to New York. I spent the first night in the Greyhound bus terminal in New York, I bought a $2 ticket to a movie and slept there to get rid of my jet lag. In the following six months I travelled over the 39 states in the bus and everywhere I went I earned my means by doing sketches for bus passengers. I enjoyed the art museums and scenic views with $50 or $100 each day in my pocket. I then had an exhibition in Washington DC, which was perhaps the first Bangladeshi's exhibit there after the Liberation. With the money collected I travelled to London and had an exhibition there too, organised by the Bangladeshi High Commission there.

Meanwhile my scholarship to Poland came around and I'd always dreamed of learning print making in Europe. My professors Andre Ruzinksi and Rapheal Strein trained me at Warsaw University for three years and I had the opportunity of meeting and learning from other famous Polish artists there. I exhibited at Cracow and Warsaw and other Polish cities. The museum of Asia Pacific art at Warsaw collected 20 of my works. I also got an award there at the Warsaw University. By 1980 I left for Bangladesh although I had the opportunity to stay on there although not before I travelled all over Europe through Russia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Turkey and finally Beirut to meet my collector there Paolo de Costa Franco, who opened the Brazilian embassy in Bangladesh in 1975.

Getting bored in Bangladesh, I availed of the French Scholarship in colour print maker with SW Heiter who invented the viscosity process. I stayed close to Notre Dame, studied at his atelier for four years, and there met Krishna Reddy the famous print maker. My contact in Japan began there in 1981 in the workshops there in Paris. Coming back to Dhaka I went to study woodblock printing through the Japan Foundation Fellowship for a year at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music with Professor Tetsuyanoda, one of the best print makers in the world. Later I got other private grants, staying in Japan for over 12 years. Meanwhile I visited Dhaka several times.

DS: You have symbols like the triangle in your work. Can you comment on this aspect of your work in your style?

KK: My work, as a whole, comprise of symbolic expressions. In the subcontinent the different religions have their symbols, which came before even the languages did. I don't believe in any fixed religion although I'm born into a Hindu family, and respect every religion. I like to study the symbols of each religion to get some essence from there to incorporate it into my canvas.

DS: Would you say that you tend to idolize women as a consequence of losing your wife early in life?

KK: I lost my wife, Koruna, a week before my graduation in Kolkata and I specially like to make female portraits, specially with black lines one a pale background. Black for me symbolizes sorrow. At the same time, black is very beautiful for me. The technique in my drawing is that I finish my sketches with quick strokes, within a few minutes. I can't work unless I'm in a mood, such as when I'm travelling by plane. Perhaps subconsciously my loneliness -- despite my having two daughters overseas -- takes the shape of women in my work.

DS: Do you think our artists need to do more research as they go about their work?

KK: Without research and study, not only art, nothing can be produced, whether it be music, literature, art or science. Without that nothing unique can be done.