At the poolside of his hotel room, across the tracts of carefully manicured lawns, he rested on a chair under the warm sun-kissed gleam and drenched his mind into moments of reverie for some temporal repose. His memory soaking in the long lost nostalgia, reflected the snatches of a bygone era that gradually faded into oblivion with time. “How beautiful those days were. The past always appears dreamful,” said Mohammad Kibria, a renowned artist from Bangladesh.
That was five years ago, on a wintry afternoon at the premises of The Oberoi Grand in Kolkata. This correspondent from The Asian Age was among the lucky few to get an appointment for a one-on-one with the father of modern contemporary art in Bangladesh.
On May 31 this year, the ailing artist breathed his last in a hospital in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He was 82 and succumbed to a heart disease and pneumonia.
Having then showcased his works in the culture capital along with other eminent artists at the city’s prestigious Birla Academy of Art and Culture, the doyen craftsman rewound the clock’s pendulum to summarise his illustrative creative sojourn. Half a century is indeed a prolonged phase to devote one’s spirit and energy to ones artistic pursuits. “It’s a second identity to my individual self, in short, an extension of my soul and conscience,” he said.
Stressing on the emergence of a new wave that speaks of amity and alliance among diverse nations, Kibria commented that the artists of respective countries can surely play a pivotal part in strengthening bilateral relations and cultural ties. “After all, they are cultural ambassadors on global platforms and can hence help build a mutual coalition and bridge the gap between two hostile blocs,” he believed.
Responding to the then ongoing Indo-Pak peace initiative process via a series of cinematic fests, Kibria had advocated the efficacy of any given art-form as an instrumental medium to powerfully bond amidst antagonistic parties. “Same is the case for Indo-Bangla exchanges. There is a need for such joint ventures to generate a strain of cultural harmony between different associations and nations,” he said.
Incidentally, Kibria’s visit to the City of Joy was then prompted by a scheme adopted by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) under the aegis of the ministry of external affairs, Government of India.
The esteemed integral body was mandated with the sole aim of forging a union with the neighbouring countries across the globe through cultural and educational transactions. As part of its chief activities, ICCR in collaboration with the Society for Promotion of Bangladesh Art and the Birla Academy had organised a solo showcase of Kibria’s works.
Proficient in oil on canvas, the adroit painter had also dabbled in various other media in his lifetime. The display of his specimens had highlighted 10 etchings and four collages among an assorted array of 24 pieces in the entire collection. Mostly untitled artworks, the thrust was laid on the palette and the materials used.
“Painting is not just confined to a visual expression. It further explores the unseen and the uncharted abyss of the earth’s orb. For instance, a green blanket of minute moss; microscopic cracks and crevasses on wall facades and mountain ranges; droplets of rain and early morning mist — all these and much more aren’t perceptible to the naked eye. We either trample them underneath our feet or tend to overlook their existence like a fleeting passer-by. But they all remain subdued in secluded corners and hang onto the planet’s gravity. I guess the forms, contours and compositions are same everywhere, be it over the expansive canvas of natural resources or in man-made creations,” he analysed.
Dubbed as a master of colours back home, no shade on the colour-spectrum seemed inconsequential to him. “For different hues have different textural quality to them. They are all layered with varied proportions,” suggested the artist. His connection with Kolkata dated back to the pre-independence era when in 1945, he got enrolled into the city Government College of Art and Crafts. Having got admission at the painting department, this veteran virtuoso honed his skills in pencil sketches, charcoal works, print-making and lithography as well.
Born in Suri in Birbhum district of West Bengal, the versatile maestro studied at the local district school, where his teachers on recognising his latent talent had further goaded him to learn the basic ropes of fine arts.
Shooting back at the slightest mention of critics drawing parallels with India’s canvas artist M.F. Husain, Kibria clarified, “This is absolutely unjustified. We are poles apart in our signature style and statement. And I think, every single artist cultivates his own genre to satisfy his creative evolution.”
Having made remarkable contributions to the art-world, Kibria’s also worked as a lecturer . Even in his last years, he was engaged as a part-time professor, grooming a bunch of raw talent and avid aspirants.
He had delivered a respectable stint at the prestigious Dhaka
Art Institute’s painting and printing section, where he trained batches of promising students, since 1952. “Even in this age of consumerism and ad campaigns, bonafide patrons and dedicated pupils do step out from the crowd to bolster art as an aesthetic asset rather than parading it as a commercial commodity,” he said, before concluding the interview.
He may have departed for his heavenly abode, but the entire art fraternity will miss his creative strokes and intellectual deliberations that extend beyond a personal studio or a claustrophobic classroom. May his soul rest in peace.
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