Page 289 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

286 ART AND CRAFTS

is constantly and explicitly presented in her work. The style
of her work is very simple and unrestrained. Her emotions
and insight are more active in representing her subject than
intellectual analysis. Jolly portrayed the horrors of the Iraq
war with great spontaneity in a series of paintings in mixed
media. The content and objective are the driving forces of
Jolly’s work. Yet, in the distinctive language of art she
employs, the purity of art is ever present due to the
spontaneous combination of form and content. Jolly’s work
is also very individual in terms of language. The interior of
the woman’s body as felt by herself is boldly presented in
her work besides the external form of the woman (fig. 7.24).
Fareha Zeba (1961) in her show entitled Homage to Frida
Kahlo of 1998 sought her history as a woman artist through
the work of the Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. The pain of
Frida’s tragic life seems to stretch across the barriers of
time and space and speaks for Zeba. The notable aspect of
this exhibition was a woman’s tribute, empathy and compassion for another woman.
Zeba’s work also portrays the oppression and discrimination against women and
women who have successfully surmounted these obstacles. Her form is figurative and
her use of medium expresses dynamic swiftness. She expresses the power and strength
of women in her depictions of women who have left their mark on time (fig. 7.27).
Ferdousi Priyabhashini (1948- ) is a self-taught artist. She began to work in the
nineties. In the early stages her creations made of wood, roots, leaves etc. collected
from nature were aimed at decorating her household (pl. 2.22). Later she began
exhibiting in group shows and held a number of solo exhibitions. She breathes
meaning into natural objects of meaningless beauty and harmonizes diverse objects. It
is almost instinctive in
women to recycle used
material. This tendency is
seen in her work as in the
traditional nakshi kantha
of Bengal.
Atia Islam Anne (1962- )
has single-mindedly
painted on the subject of
fig. 7.24 (top) Dilara
Begum Jolly, Embryo the inferior status of
Withdrawn-11, 2002 women in society. Her
form and language are
fig. 7.25 (bottom) Sufia unique. She uses
Begum, Post Meridian- seemingly surreal
9, oil, 1996 elements, but they are not