Page 183 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

180 ART AND CRAFTS

Craft after which he came to Dhaka. He taught for some time
at the Nawabpur School before he joined the Art Institute in
1952. Mohammad Kibria is primarily an artist in the oil color
medium. In 1959 he went to Japan and received higher training
in printmaking. This made him especially eager to work in this
medium. He has worked in every medium of printmaking, such
as etching, drypoint, lithographs and so on. In the lithography
medium he was influenced by transparent watercolors and
created a colorful world of lines and colors, thus also in etching
aquatint he has added a different dimension by using soft
textures. Sometimes it becomes very difficult to differentiate
his lithography and etching aquatints. By etching we generally
mean a line dominated elegant medium, but Kibria’s etching
aquatints are quite different, rather they are much softer, like
his oil paintings (fig.3.8).
Engaging in various kinds of experimentation in different
media of printmaking he has formed the base of modern
printmaking in Bangladesh. After returning from Japan in
fig. 3.7 Habibur 1962 he joined the Printmaking Department of the Art Institute. Mohammad Kibria is
Rahman, Pussy, as popular as a teacher is he is acclaimed as an artist. Basically he is known as a pioneer
woodcut of the abstract trend of the country. With the use of colors, lines and textures he projects
a kind of idealistic tendency in his work which goes beyond the visible world. He is
fig. 3.8 Mohammad considered to be the most successful artist of the abstract trend. In the print medium also
Kibria, Print VIII, he has used many uncommon methods and different experiments and has presented a
etching, 1980 difference through the use of colors and lines. He has also received international
recognition in the print medium. In 1959 he received an award in the National
Exhibition of Japan. His notable series is Memories (1981).
Another artist who must be mentioned is Abdur Razzaque, a student of the second
batch of the Institute of Fine Art who later joined as a teacher. In 1957 he obtained a
post-graduate degree from the Iowa University
of USA in Printmaking. He was a student of
the world famous printmaker Mauricio
Lasansky and received lessons from him on
etching, drypoint and lithography. Although
later he became better known as a sculptor, he
has also left evidence of excellence in the
medium of printmaking. His noteworthy works
are Self-portrait (1957), Composition (1973)
both done in the medium of lithography.
The artists of the generation after Safiuddin
and Kibria who have played a leading role in
the growth of printmaking in this country are
Rafiqun Nabi, Mahmudul Haque, Abul Barq