Restless colours within confining contours

Art work by Abdul Muqtadir, one of our notable artists

Muqtadir adds, "Everything starts from its own position. I can see contours of all these various positions. The spectrum of colours then becomes a perfect world of innumerable contours. The varying degrees of intensity of all these colours are restlessly in motion within these contours. There is harmony because these do not step out of the contours. There is chaos the moment the contours are breached. I also feel that the contours are spontaneous, flexible, sensitive, expandable and compressible. They remain bound and inter-linked. It is here that I see a play of relationships of attractions and repulsion, acceptance and rejections."

In one of the untitled paintings, the artist had brought in figures of Adam and Eve in shades of brown, with the symbol of the apple placed over their faces, with Eve holding on to a smaller version of the apple, with the evil snake circling them. The rest of humanity are seen outside the circle and they, as the painter puts it, have resulted from the loss of innocence. "We get pleasure from the proportions that are in play", Muqtadir elaborated. "I consider colours to be fragments of invisible light which we in our culture know as 'noor'. I tried to focus on the story that have come down in the revealed religions and portrayed humanity in the backdrop depicted in browns and mauves. The proportions of colours can be seen in the contours." The fine lines of the innumerable contours were brought in by fine brushwork, that glide and swirl around the colours. That is Muqtadir's inimitable style.

The wing, tail, beak of a dove were brought onto another canvas. This were surrounded by eyes of more birds. The surrounding, Muqtadir explained was chaos within orderly dispositions. The relation of the dove with its backdrop is the contrast of peaceful images with frightening ones. "I've tried to divide and take out each variation of shades which brings in the focus and relationship of the theme of a search for harmony," the artist said. Some of the images were done in clear details while others in the backdrop were more fragmented and juxtaposed willy-nilly. The theme of disorder had been brought in with the contrast of the neat composition set on a quixotic background. The painting, like others, had no title, as the artist wanted the viewer to comprehend whatever he wanted and not be fixed by any given attached name.

On another canvas was a game board with snakes and ladders and a relatively large dice. A section of the area in front had been worked with an amassing of contours suggesting a place for sitting for the players. This brought in the theme of destiny, with the snakes and ladders suggesting the ups and downs of life, the focus being death and eternal peace. A red dot heightened the dramatic effect. The mosaic effect leant the characteristic touch. Another picture contained four small, neat squares bearing images from the artist's past, i.e. the kite, top and marbles, a child at play. Waves of the river of memory were depicted as flowing past the bottom of the composition. At the back were a gathering of clouds of contentment. "This for me was paradise," said the artist, "which was the age of innocence and I was perfectly happy with my surroundings."

Asked how he went about his work Muqtadir said that he began without any preconceived plan or sketch and as the ideas came to him, when he stood before the canvas, he placed them there to the best of his ability in a somewhat random fashion, as thoughts come to one in a pell-mell manner, and not necessarily in an organized way to form a neat and pat composition to please the passing viewer. The artist does not believe that life is a preplanned phenomenon and plenty of random incidents may form important composite portions of existence. "In every painting I put some splash of pigments and then put some more. Next I try to find the relationship between the pigments," and so the connecting lines and swirls.

Noted senior artist and cartoonist, Rafiqun Nabi, said, "Abdul Muqtadir is one of our notable artists of the 1960s generation -- a decade which was perhaps the most momentous and eventful period in our national life. This 60s saw the search for what is quintessentially Bengali and an endeavour to establish his 'Bengaliness' in all conceivable aspects of life specially in politics, arts, literature. Muqtadir is a product of this decade of upheaval and aspiration. He devoted his creative talent to traditional designs, a special aspect of our national heritage, and to applied art, more specifically advertisement graphics. He has worked towards blending a modern aesthetic disposition with basic traditional designs."

This was Muqtadir's 7th solo exhibit. Art for the artist is something that remains many-faced and with many masks. He says, "Art resides behind masks, it is so today and will always be."