Page 137 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

134 ART AND CRAFTS

Novera belonged to this generation. Being a woman and a sculptor, she was also an
exception and definitely extraordinary. She was completely devoted to her work,
which is perhaps why she was undeterred by the hostility that surrounded her, at least
for some time. Her goal was to animate Dhaka with sculptures as other great cities of
the world, where art would guide people towards greatness, show them the inner truth
of life. To this end she created almost a hundred pieces of sculpture between 1956 and
1960, installed the first outdoor sculpture in Dhaka (fig. 2.41), created the first relief
on a public edifice on the wall of the Public Library (presently the Central Library of
the Dhaka University), in 1960 she had the first sculpture exhibition in Dhaka.
Moreover, she contributed to the design of the Central Shaheed Minar and she created
three sculptures for it.
Novera’s subject was the peasant or the common people of the land. She had perhaps
romanticized their lives a little to give a local flavor to her work. She also wished to
touch the source of spirituality of Bengal in her work. She had discovered victory over
pain in the meditative posture of the Buddha. Her work also comprised of simplified
rhythms and minimized primitive forms.
In terms of form, Novera’s work may be seen to combine two streams, the modernism
of the west and the changeless tradition of the clay art of Bengal. Among the western
trends the Vitalist movement, particularly Henry Moore’s simplified human forms and
Hepworth's discovery much used by Moore, creation of abstract space in sculptural
forms. Novera had worked in cement, wood, plaster and clay. Due to technical
limitations her work in cement took on a rather linear, simple and almost flat form
following the inflexible structure of iron rods. However, some of her work exemplifies
the use of the cylindrical form.
Novera’s work showed the use of local forms, clear knowledge of modern art
movements and the desire to reach modernism through the primitive, all of which
combined to take the sculpture of Bangladesh to quite a position of strength at its
introduction (pl. 2.13). However, Novera could not stay in Dhaka for very long due to
unfavorable circumstances. She left for West Pakistan in search of a better atmosphere.
As in the sphere of architecture Muzharul Islam took modern architecture to an
unprecedented level, similarly Novera ushered in the tide of free sculpture to
Bangladesh. Yet both of them seem to float in vacuums, with none to precede or to
succeed them.
In 1963 sculpture was included in the curriculum of the art institute in Dhaka. The
department was established with the enthusiasm of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and
Abdur Razzaque (1932-2005) was the founding head of the department, organizing
and developing it. Abdur Razzaque was primarily a student of painting and
printmaking. He was particularly accomplished in drawing. While studying for his
MFA degree at the Iowa University of USA he took a year’s special training in
drawing under the supervision of James Leachey. He studied sculpture for two