A marvellous melange of lyrical lines

Ivy Zaman

Javed Jalil, who had his fine arts studies in USA, had done most of his work as he said, with Chinese ink and brush; at times he added crayons, as in his landscapes. The woman appeared to be caught in a state of struggle and yet the yellow hues included added a tinge of definite hope and optimism. The mingling faces of the horses with those of the women had a poetic flare. "Basically," said Javed, "I wanted to create a rhythmic music-like composition with my lines, mingled with deeply emotional aspects e.g. the women with the flowers, with hands reaching out, conveys the feeling of the woman's desire to get out of the earthly confines, looking for some divine inspiration, something to lift her up from the earthly confines, and make her existence meaningful." Javed said that the creation meant a reaching out for eternity. The lines had thin contours in certain parts, he pointed out, and at times there were apparent smudges with the brush and ink, to lend shade to the background as well as the woman's body. "The light brush work is to lend a feeling of space or wind," Javed said. "The environment is thus like some musical composition.

In the next composition, a woman had the sun to her left: Javed explained, "I've depicted the sunburst in muted swirling rays of yellow, blending them with gray. The woman's torso is pressing towards something to depict that she was torn with turmoil." The important element about the composition was that through physical gestures the artist had shown internal emotion. "I seek greater sense of expression through my lines," Javed added," which could reflect a number of different emotions: it depends on the viewers; I tried to show different reflections of different emotions." In another portrait of a woman, also done with dark black, brush lines, with a touch of pale pink and blue on the top and bottom, brought in horses which the artists said could symbolize different human motions, such as anger, frustration and hope. "I tried to bring in the effect of a western classical symphony in it," Javed elaborated, "with high and low notes."

The landscapes had used different muted hues to bring in the splashing sun, with a strutting exotic bird in front and more flamboyant colours in the backdrop, with curls, lines, loops and feathery motifs which reflected harmony in nature, as Javed put it. It was meant to portray a winter afternoon with the feeling of glory and joy in which Chines brush and pastel had been used. Despite his relative youth, Javed's works spoke of confidence and natural mastery of the strokes and choice of hues, which ranged from umber to ruby-red.

Ivy Zaman, flushed with her recent feats at Korea, where a garden had been named after her, where her large sculpture pieces have been kept, said about the three seated Buddha statues that had been included at the exhibit, said that they had been made from bronze and aluminum. The figures had been simplified, as have been all Ivy's works, right from the outset of her career. The hands and body formed three lines and so a triangle; while the head was a blob in each case. "I tried to bring the crescent moon shape for the base," Ivy said. The pieces had shining glaze, one being silver and the other dull gold. "I admire Buddha for his thoughts of peace and toleration of all mankind -- not that I am fluctuating from my own religion: but my travels have made me have a broader outlook of life. I believe that Buddhists, in particular, have special concern for social values, going by the books I've read on Buddha," she added. She continued, "The religious leader was a humanist in the true sense and I believe that this religion really preaches the ultimate essence of peace and harmony among mankind. While in Korea I'd done similar sculpture of seven feet in granite. I'll be doing images such as that of fish and 'the angry cat' for the Asian Biennale next month".

Ivy said that she had done these faces of Bangladeshis too for the exhibition. These faces, she said, in pain and despair, were in contrast to the visages of the poor helpers whom she'd come across in Korea. She said that these deprived people appeared as contented as the satisfied Bangladeshis of the bourgeois and upper echelons classes. Ivy insisted that there were not the sharp class barriers where she had worked as we find in our own country, or so it appeared to her. "There wasn't for instance, a vast difference between the bearing of the President and the average labourers, for instance," Ivy insisted.

Abdus Shakoor's sketches were there too but the eminent artist of folklore apparently hadn't put his heart to the workshop: he had packed up his effort in series of few quick sketches in black and white. The integral beauty of the country people, the fishermen, boatmen and farmers had been evoked but not in the depth that one is used to and which one expected and hoped for on the occasion.

Young Anukul Mojumder, in his turn, had brought in fine sketches and pulsating paint work, depicting rural women separately, and again seen in the backdrop of nature with all its charm and magnetic beauty. Despite his youth and his other preoccupations to make a living, Anukul had presented adequate proof of admirable inspiration and talent combined with dedicated application of paints with brush.

The exhibition was replete with swift lines and strokes that signified the rhythm of Bangladeshi life, both well-known and lesser famed artists had worked their heart out -- although this was within a relatively short span of time.