A master painter of portraits and landscapes
Asked for his view of the state of art in Bangladesh, Jamal said, "In a little over a decade, our art work has met with accolades and appreciation the world over. We are in not, in any way, lagging behind the artists in Pakistan, or even, perhaps India, though the latter country is comparatively vast, and its artists have steady patronage." Jamal added that the critics there too have more time and much better remuneration. At the outset, in Bangladesh, the artists have often been faced with "slings and arrows" of criticism.
Those who left the country shortly after the Liberation War -- like Shahabuddin, Shahid Kabir, Munirul Islam and Maruf Ahmed have had steady success, Jamal said. He reiterated that artists like himself have had to face struggle and strife till fairly recently. For each local recognition (Jamal has won prizes at the National show from the Shilpakala Academy in 1994, and Bangladesh Asian Biennale, in 2001). Today, in Bangladesh, he pointed out, there are numerous art lovers, many private galleries and many critiques. Foreign acclaim for artists, like himself and even more junior ones is also there aplenty.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Throwing light on the techniques he uses for his landscapes and portraits, Jamal said that he went to the original scene of the enormous landscapes that he does and that he had gone there earlier with younger colleagues and students. Whatever attracts his eyes, be it human or flora and fauna, he portrays that in oil or charcoal, the latter being his passion for quite some years now. One of his best efforts, he added, is his acrylic on canvas, 27 ft x 10 ft, the subject being the Buriganga River; the work now hangs in a local restaurant. He had developed his subject on numerous charcoal sketches and photographs.
As regards his portraits, he continued, he has done 5ft by 6ft faces, acrylic on canvas. He said, "I want my faces to be larger than life, in order to stress on the emotions expressed by the eyes." Through the eyes of his subjects, Jamal expresses the pains and pleasures of his sitters, such as that of Fatema, a professional artist's model with "translucent eyes", as he puts it.
Asked to dwell deeper on his profession, Jamal concluded, "There could be nothing more pleasurable than my teaching at the Institute of Fine Arts, DU. Of course my passion for doing art work is equally dear to my heart, if not more."