Page 338 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 335

however advances forward producing one picture after another. Like in Safiuddin’s
wood engraving named Santal Woman of 1946, the girl who is filling water is going
on filling water forever and the girl standing by her side has also been standing like
that for the past 60 years and she will remain like that forever. And we, the viewers,
will see that the Safiuddin of 1946 in that picture, is no longer working in the style or
is in that same place in the Sound of Blue-2 of 2002 (pl. 8.19). He has advanced
forward. But the position of the picture of 2006 has changed from the position of the
picture of 1946. For, stylistically he has moved far away. To know exactly where he
has gone one has to place side by side and examine his prints, oil paintings, drawings,
etc. done in 1943, 1944 and 1945. He has gone from the romantic, orderly
arrangement of visual information to the unworldly sphere of the transformation of the
visual world into concept. It is ‘unworldly’ in the sense that it has transcended
everyday worldly consciousness. In the process of creating art works the social world
is the first to strike the artist’s mental world. The day to day events happening in the
social world creates many different moods in the artist’s mind. For instance, Safiuddin
first experienced floods in Dhaka. On a particular date, at one point of time, the flood
water entered his room in the natural, worldly process, which after creating the feeling
of amazement in his mental world, in the end gave way to its expression in the
language of color and line. This is when this language of color and line crossed the
stage of popular communication because what he created in his picture does not have
any similarity with the worldly or the everyday. It gave form to a pictorial world never
seen before, that which was not there in the everyday world. The amazing quality of
the pictorial world is that, the pictorial world does not compete with the material world
and creates a new world of its own. In his oil paintings done from the end of the
twentieth century till after crossing the threshold of the twentieth century, we notice
his progression towards something higher. Although his painting Sound of Blue-2 of
2002 has its origins in his experience, it has achieved the autonomy of pictorial truth
independent of material reality. In the wood engraving Santal Woman of 1946 we see
a romantic reflection of what is seen directly, where woman, tree, water, shadows
flowing on the water, etc. can be seen compared with the similarity to familiar forms.
In that picture he communicates directly to the viewers the pleasure of visual
perception. But in the painting Sound of Blue-2 we notice a pure composition of colors
and forms which has its origin in visual experience. This composition is no longer
dependent on similarity, this pure composition is free from any outward relation, it is
independent. The role of the artist in Santal Woman is that of the story-teller who in
his descriptions faithfully delivers an account of all the details, with a report on light
and shade. But in Sound of Blue-2 he is a creator of forms independent of material
reality. Supporting himself on material reality he has reached an essence which is
completely independent. Right from the beginning his oil colors are heavy, weighty
and strongly opaque. In his latest paintings this same opacity of colors is present. If
we view the painting Blind Girl and Dead Bird based on its name, we will be faced
by a riddle. A blind girl and a dead bird are merely some information about this