Page 185 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

182 ART AND CRAFTS

Pioneers of Printmaking. Safiuddin Ahmed, Mohammad Kibria, Rafiqun Nabi and
Monirul Islam participated in this show. The month of April 2004 was significant for
the printmaking of Bangladesh. Through the initiative of the Alliance Fançaise in
Dhaka an excellent exhibition of prints by thirty-two French artists was organized
among whom were included the world famous Picasso, Dali, Chagall, Miro and
others. In Paris an exchange exhibition was organized in June 2004, which featured
prints by nineteen distinguished artists of Bangladesh. This is undoubtedly a
remarkable event for the printmaking of Bangladesh.
A brief introduction to the artists
Rafiqun Nabi was born in 1943. He finished his education in Fine Art in 1964 from
the Drawing and Painting Department. He is famous for his skill in watercolors. He
was in Greece from 1973 to 1976 for higher education and stayed in Athens; during
this period he received higher training in woodcut from the famous Greek artist
Gramatopoulos. Returning to Bangladesh his accomplishment in woodcut prints was
received with general admiration. His woodcut is characterized by the domination of
colors, or the use of bright colors. Using a number of blocks and printing one over the
other he creates numerous pictorial planes. Monochrome woodcut prints were in
circulation in our country for a long time, the prints of Rafiqun Nabi introduced for
the first time this special kind of colorful woodcuts. The nature, people and fauna of
Bangladesh are the subjects of his pictures. A unique exhibition exclusively of
woodcut prints was held in Dhaka in 1981 which was acclaimed by learned circles. In
1980 the picture Summer’s Dove received an award in Inter Graphiks in Berlin. His
noteworthy woodcut prints are – Poet (1980), The Blue Bait (1983), Empty Cage
(1983) etc. He is at present a Professor of the Institute of Fine Art (pl.3.3).
Abdus Sattar revealed himself as a printmaker in the seventies. He studied printmaking
from 1973-1975 in Kala Bhavana of Visva Bharati where his teacher was the
distinguished artist Somnath Hore. In Santiniketan he mastered different techniques of
wood engraving, etching and lithography, and later played a special role in the
development of printmaking of Bangladesh. His works done in Santiniketan were
thematic and realistic. The characteristics of eastern art dominate these works; later he
started to engage in various kinds of experimentation in woodcuts. It should be
mentioned that he introduced the process of taking prints from burnt wood. Later he
executed works in both the realistic and abstract trends (pl.3.2). He was awarded the
grand prize for a woodcut print in the First Asian Biennale exhibition held in
Bangladesh in 1981. His noteworthy series are – Burnt Wood Series (1980, 1982) and
Relations (1985). At present he is a Professor of the Institute of Fine Art.
Monirul Islam has been living in Spain for a long time. He is primarily a successful
artist in the media of watercolor and oil color. Later working in printmaking he has
established himself as an important artist of this medium. In 1966 he obtained
Bachelor’s degree from the Dhaka Art College. It was at the same institution that his
working life started as a teacher. In 1969 he went to Spain on receiving a scholarship