Oriental art sans overt ornamentation

Lady with a bird 'A'

In the early 20th century, Nasreen pointed out, Abanindranath Thakur took together some local Indian artists and encouraged their forte. "He began this work that originated in Persian and Mughal art," she said, " Later he was introduced to Japanese wash painting and he combined this with Persian art. Earlier, in India, the paintings under the "zamindars" had been tempera. The colour in the combined technique rolled on the colours, bit by bit, spontaneously with the application of the brush. The artists who flourished in India, within the Bengal School, at this time, were ones like Binod Bihari Mukhopaddya, Nanda Lal Bose." At this time, Abdur Rehman Chughtai began working in his own style and according to Nasreen, the most modern Oriental style of his time was Chughtai's paintings. This genre did not progress for quite some time.

In 1948 in the Art College established by Zainul Abedin at Dhaka, the Oriental Art wash technique was continued here in Dhaka. When Nasreen was admitted to the college in 1975, she had followed Chughtai's style taking images from cards and calendars. However, having graduated from Baroda's Maharaja Sayajirao's University, she developed a style of her own where she experimented outside the confines of the traditional dictates and grammar. She wanted to combine the western water-colour technique with the Oriental water colour dictates. " Now we try to finish the work at one go whereas earlier we applied numerous washes. The subject matter is definitely in keeping with contemporary life while I use the Oriental technique although even the latter has seen a change," Nasreen added.

In Nasreen's exhibition at "Chitrak" she had continued with her "Door of a new life" series that had continued from 1992-95. The door had been a symbol of Nasreen's belief that new encounters must be overcome in one's progress in life. She had dealt with the "Leaves" and "Cacti" series. The difference between the earlier "Door" series and the present paintings was that the paintings are more abstract and the door now is presented as an open one, which is more decorative and contain washes of brighter and buoyant colours. The red in the painting stands for strength, while the Chinese ink used has been to bring in variation. The red too is used in gradations, verging from pink to maroon. "I'm gradually going in for minimization. I feel this relates to my present life, which too has been simplified". Thus circles, rectangles and triangles, found in the works like "The red door, 'A'" have been used in a simple manner" represent hopeful expectations. The flowers, human figures and inclusion of the moon in another work also brings in a variation of the same bold but minimized colours. Another of her work presents a close-up of a single broken shell seen with the sea and the sand around it.

Fahmida Khatun, one of the students, presents a flower whose colours are different from the ones in the original in each of her compositions. Fahmida has used bright yellow, blue, deep red, with touches of green in representing cosmos, an arum lily, "shorno chanpa", hibiscus and bougainvillea. Fahmida said, "First I studied the flower minutely and then enlarged the form and put colours of my own imagination, such as royal blue instead of orange, with washes in the Oriental Art style on handmade paper." In one of Md. Abdul Aziz's paintings we see an idyllic representation of a young rustic couple where the woman rests on the man's shoulder, as he plays his flute. Birds and trees have been included in the backdrop. Rabeya Begum Lipi has brought in sections of flowers, with details of petals, pistils and pollen in a romanticized manner in many of her paintings.

There are ten paintings of each of the four participating artists, keeping in mind the "sadang" (six limbs) of Oriental Art. The name of the exhibition, "barnikavanga" are taken from the five components of "sadang." Nasreen, who has had five solo exhibitions, has taken part in 50 group displays at home and overseas. Fahmida and Rabeya have each taken part in 10 group exhibitions, while Aziz has participated in 16 group displays.