Fund raising endeavour at Liberation War Museum

Some of the artistic works on display. PHOTO: STAR

The artists, who painted these canvases at the LWM premises on March 26 on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of Independence, donated the paintings to the LWM. The sale proceeds of the present exhibition will go to the endowment fund of LWM. Begun on April 21, the display will continue till April 30. Artists in their distinctive styles have reflected the theme of 'Freedom' on the canvases.

A white pigeon has been used as the symbol of 'freedom' on the canvases of Abdul Mannan and Shamsuddoha. On the other hand a 'figure of a woman and white pigeon' reflects freedom on the canvases of Farida Zaman and Jamal Ahmed.

Colourful canvases, portraying the figures of the front line freedom fighters, embody the spirit of Liberation in the art works by Hashem Khan, Biren Shome, Abul Barq Alvi and M Maniruzzaman.

Expressionist Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Nisar Hossain, Ahmed Nazir and M Zahiruddin have portrayed freedom through different shades of vivid colours such as red, blue, yellow and others.

Mohammad Eunus has symbolically represented freedom through the National Flag rising from a white circle full of slogans of different important movements from 1952 to 1971.

Rafiqun Nabi has used his trademark cartoon tokai as the symbol of freedom. His canvas features a tokai flying the National Flag of Bangladesh amidst corpses of freedom fighters.

Abdus Shakur has used acclaimed poet Shamsur Rahman's popular verse Tomake pawar jonyo he swadhinota on a red background, while white figures represent the freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives during the Liberation War in 1971.

Hamiduzzaman Khan has depicted the struggle of the Liberation War through the portrait of a crying face on the red canvas, while flying vultures on Alakesh Ghosh's canvas portray brutality by the Pakistani military regime during the Liberation War.

Sheikh Afzal has compared the beauty of freedom with an innocent sleeping child in its mother's lap.

Shishir Bhattacharjee has painted figures of human beings and animals enjoying the glorious moment of freedom on the white canvas.

The exhibition is a significant initiative by senior artists to collect funds for LWM, which has been active to preserve the documents as well as to spread the spirit of our Liberation War.