Commemorating the death of a martyred leader

Md Javed Russel

Hashem Khan had splashes of red seen against those of black and white giving the effect of a riotous rally with arms and slogans in the sky. Showkatuzzaman had a pure white bird shot and wounded while flying in the sky. The birds' wings were drooping while its head was surrounded with blood. The sky was seen as pearl gray and sooty with touches of pink and yellow. Mokhlesur Rahman had abstractions of gray, yellow and black masses seen against a white and yellow background.

Among the prize winners was the entry by Ajmaluddin Palash which had the face and figure of Sheikh Mujib in a silhouette while his jacket was in white as were also his hands. The rest of the picture was in a startling and dramatic black. The broken and shattered shot at balcony of Sheikh Mujib's house, with details of the bullet holes held up the image of carnage on that dreadful August night. Shahid Kazi's floating shrouded figures gave the impression of ghosts moving about martyred leader's house. The picture was in black and white. Moniruddin Ahmed's woodcut with barely clad fishermen going about their work won yet another prize.

Abdul Aziz had masses of flowering cacti seen against washes of blue, red and gray. Nazir Khan had a prisoner standing against some barbedwires. Ugly black hands reached out and tugged at the man's chest and hands. Mohammed Khurshid Nizam's work had Sheikh Mujib's figure sketched in with two red and black rectangles framing the face, with a pink disc behind the head of the martyred man. Esnul Ehsan Khan's work has a framed portrait of the national leader with bloodied handprints and more bloody marks on thwe pale yellow background speaking of treachery, death and destruction. Nusrat Jehan Nazli's work had the demised leader's pipe and spectacles on a table with a backdrop of blue and gray. Ranjit Kumar Dhar's painting had abstractions of lines and splashes in blood red, blue, gray and white. Mostafa Kamal's painting had people sitting and moping in shades of gray and green. The wall behind had smears of red.

Portraits of the leader were presented in various ways in the works of Nadia Anjum, Raqib Hasan, Uttom Kumar Rai, Shandib Kumar Devnath and Ashish Chowdury. Some had him smoking his pipe or holding on to it, smiling or giving a speech or simply looking on. Working on the portraits were also the works of Ajmaluddin Pollash, Adil Ahmed, Biplob Dutt, Roosevelt Rozario and Emdad Rashid Tehmina Qadir had a mother bird looking down on its nest, the picture being in blues, yellow and brown. Proshanto Karmakar had another such bird and this was surrounded by arrows and it was perched on a folded black ribbon of mourning. Ruhul Karim Rumy also had birds in his picture and these were seen as moving about the birdhouse. Bloody smears and protests were also the mark of other artists like Anwar Hossian, Aminul Islam and Nazmun Nehar Rahman.