Page 140 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SCULPTURE 137

hybridization of the Neoclassical and Socialist
Realism in their inspiration and expression.
However, as the technique of western academic
sculpture was not known in this country they did
not express the ideals of naturalism or realism. A
hybrid form of sculpture was born where greater
interest was taken in details than in inner structure
or total form. The importance of visual and
material structures was not dealt with.
Hamiduzzaman Khan (1946-) was born in
Kishoreganj of Mymensingh. He began to practice
sculpture based on studies from life before the War of Liberation. He was awarded the
BFA degree from the painting department of the Institute of Fine Art in 1967. Later in
1976, he was awarded MFA in sculpture from the M.S. University of Baroda, India.
His work during this period featuring the War of Liberation showed a remarkable
blending of subject and material (fig. 2.44). His experience of the atrocities of the
Pakistani armed forces imparted an expressionist quality to his work. His
consciousness of the qualities of the medium he uses has made his work successful to
a large extent. Some of his outdoor sculptural works on the subject of the Liberation
War are figurative. In some sculptures, for example Samsaptak placed in the
Jahangirnagar University in 1990, he has created a figurative sculpture by keeping
intact the character of metal sheets. In 1980 he decorated the fountain in front of the
Bangabhavan with a sculpture entitled Bird Family. This sculpture in brass sheets and
pipes is geometric and linear in composition. According to Nazrul Islam this is not
only Hamiduzzamans’ best work, it is also the most important amongst the out door
sculptures situated in Dhaka. 101
From 1982 to 1983 Hamiduzzaman did a year’s internship in Sculpture Centre School
of New York, USA. He was most impressed by the extensive use of abstract sculpture
in urban beautification and on his return to Dhaka he tried to introduce the trend (pl.
2.16). He returned to turn his attention to creating abstract forms, yet he did not
completely abandon figurative sculpture, especially when he worked on commissions
from various organizations on the subject of the Liberation War. 102 He installed a
sculpture at the invitation of the Olympic Association in the Olympic park in Seoul,
South Korea in 1988. According to Nazrul Islam, Hamiduzzaman is the first important
artist of Bangladesh who has introduced installation. He has contributed considerably fig. 2.45 (top) Alak
103
to popularizing sculpture in Bangladesh. Hamiduzzaman Khan is the pioneer of pure Roy, No More Slavery,
terracotta, 1988
abstraction in the art of Bangladesh,
though he also works on figurative fig. 2.46 (bottom)
compositions when needed. Towfiqur Rahman,
Hamiduzzaman began his practice of Expression, welded
abstraction in sculpture in the eighties. iron, 2006