Page 262 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

CONCEPTUAL ART AND NEW TRENDS 259

consciousness, environmentalism, fig. 6.8 (top left) Joseph
etc. appeared as the subjects of Beuys, Coyote: I like
art. For this, the new trend of America and America
presenting arts became especially Likes Me, performance,
useful. Postmodernist doctrines New York, 1974
also evolved in the visual arts as fig. 6.9 (bottom)
in literature and architecture - Mahbubur Rahman,
and this new conceptual trend Waiting for the Heaven,
became a special vehicle of wood, fabric, camphor,
Postmodernist art. Bangladesh Shilpakala
Throughout the 70s, Conceptual Academy, Dhaka, 1994
Art flourished swiftly in North
America and Europe. Installation and performance art created by Joseph Beuys (fig.
6.8), Christo and others began to spread extensively. At the same time, rapid
development of information technology and globalization of economy started
reducing geographic distances. As in the case with globalization of products, in art
also the regional and continental distinctions started to diminish. Consequently, the
differences between the presentations of art in Dokumenta of Germany or exhibitions
of Venice or Sao Paulo and the creative trends of Asian artists began to fade away. The
new trends began to be practiced in Japan and other Asian countries.
Conceptual Art and New Trends: Introduction and Reaction
Bangladeshi artists began to be acquainted, mainly through information technology,
publications, etc, with the newer trends in art that thrived in the west during the 1970s.
Experiencing the installations and performances presented in the Asian Biennales also
worked as an influencing factor. Young art students who assisted the Japanese artists in
creating and presenting their installations became particularly interested in this new
conceptual trend. Even though the artist community of Bangladesh had been visually
experiencing installation and performance art since the 80s through the biennales, there
was not much interest to practice the new trend before the 90s. In the mid-90s, several
installation and performance art presentations took place in Bangladesh. Mainly the
young student artists organized these various
presentations in Dhaka. The sculptures of
young artist Mahbubur Rahman obtained
national recognition as well as international
attention. It should be mentioned that
Mahbub, like Hamiduzzaman and Alak Roy,
was at this time an enthusiast in multiple-
medium sculptures and in art created from a
combination of materials instead of a
conventional single form. He was invited to
the fourth Asian Art Exhibition organized in