Page 335 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

332 ART AND CRAFTS

upper part of the picture plane. The balance or harmony of this
picture is to be seen bearing in mind the formula of fulcrum
balance or supportive attraction in the science of force or
mechanics which explains the balance of mass or weight in the
same played by children in the up and down movement of the see-
saw. Instead of achieving two-sided balance using a simple plan
like in older days, the bringing of balance in the picture through
this supportive attraction is one of the prime characteristics
modern pictures. For this reason Safiuddin’s pictures cannot be
considered for their subject matter alone. Of course, the root
inspiration of these pictures is the directly known and felt
material world. The different bits of information originating from
the material world have been assimilated by his senses and
arranged on the canvas according to the logic of composition. In
these pictures he has transformed the truth of information into
pictorial truth. This is what happens in pictures. Bangladesh is
riverine and green with an abundance of crops. Radha Vanga and
Jharkhand are rough, drought affected areas. The nature of the
land of these two areas is different, the vegetation is different.
Quite naturally in Safiuddin’s earlier pictures the taal and shal
were the only trees present. Both of these trees are trees of
fig. 8.22 The Bridge drought affected lands. In those pictures the postures of the Santals were different.
Across, etching aquatint, From the mid-’50s the common people of Bengal began to show themselves in
1959
Safiuddin’s drawings. In the figures in Fishing, Carpenter, and Threshing Paddy – the
drawing of the bodies that have appeared have distinctively Bengali characteristics in
their gestures. In this context his drawing [Drawing-11] (fig. 8.21) and the oil painting
both named Watery Grave needs to be mentioned. Turner and Constable saw water as
being one of the elements in the scheme of the five vital elements. In both of their
paintings water has been symbolized as a primary physical element. The water in
Turner’s pictures hints at the fact that the conquering of the world by the English as
a great power would be by the water route and his pictures also hint that the sun of
the English conquest would set in the horizon beyond the water. In Constable’s
pictures the reflection of the sky falls on water. The world of his pictures comprises
of water, land and the sky. It is within these that people move about. In Safiuddin’s
pictures the everyday habitation of the Bangladeshis is on the water. When in the
deluge of water the earth returns to the primary form of Noah’s world, it is then that
water extends throughout the world and wipes out the existence of land. That is
when burial in water is inevitable. In an oblique manner it seems that the Behula
myth returns in this picture. In an unequal struggle against death refusing to admit
defeat Behula floats on a raft with her husband Laxminder’s corpse. Boarding the
raft she goes to the heavenly world. By entertaining the gods in the heavenly world