Page 366 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 363

different artists belonging to the Bengal School inspired him. Paintings by
Rabindranath Tagoree specially moved him. He followed with great sincerety Zainul’s
watercolor lessons at the Institute. After two-years education in art at Dhaka Hamid
went to Paris, the Mecca of art education. He took a short course from 1950 to 1951
at the famous school of art in Paris, the Ecole des Beaux Art. Here the subject of his
study was mural. He took lessons from the famous teacher Pierre Rodin. Along with
the prescribed syllabus of the Institute, experience of viewing the works of world
famous artists at museums and exchange of ideas with meritorious classmates
enriched him as a person. After partition, no other artist from this region had gone to
the west to study art before Hamid. His classmates in Paris were Akbar Padamsi,
Laxman Pai, Nird Majumder, Paritosh Sen, Raja and others. That there is reasonable
grounds for a comparative study of Hamid’s works with his classmates’ may easily be
assumed by an inquisitive researcher of art.
Hamid went to London in 1951 and was admitted to the Central School of Arts and
Design the same year where he obtained graduation in 1956. During the summer
vacation of 1953 he went to Florence and completed a short course on mural art at the
world famous institute ‘Academy de Belle Arte’. During 1958-59, he remained attached
to Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, USA as a research scholar.
Even as a student, Hamidur Rahman attracted attention of art connoisseurs in different
group exhibitions at home and abroad. Although mainly a mural artist, yet the number
of his works in oil and other media is considerable, too. In the first exhibition of
‘Dhaka Art Group’ held in 1951, 16 of his works in the realistic genre were displayed.
Even then, he demonstarted his skill in the media of watercolor, oil color, woodcut etc.
Moreover, he took part in other group exhibitions with the highest number of art works
among his contemporary artists. Not only did he produce art works in great numbers,
he felt the strength of each different medium and produced a variety of work.
Hamidur Rahman’s works deserve special mention among those who broke with the
realistic art form in the decade of the 1950s. He is one of the first who began to work
in the abstract trend. In 1956, Hamidur Rahman’s solo exhibition was arranged at the
Dhaka USIS building with the initiative of the Pakistan-American society. In this
exhibition were displayed his abstract works stressing colors, lines and forms in the
non-representational trend. This exhibition bears special significance in the history of
art of this country because by his efforts in the abstract trend the artist diversified and
broadened the country’s periphery of fine art. In 1959 the artist’s second solo
exhibition was held at Karachi’s Art Council at the initiative of ‘Pakistan-Austria
Cultural Association’. Besides, his solo exhibition was held again in Dhaka in 1964,
again in Karachi in 1970 and in 1973 in London. He had numerous shows held in
Europe, the United States, Canada, India and Pakistan at different times. Especially
mentionable are the artist’s solo exhibitions held in 1982 in Ottawa, Canada and in
1984 in Dhaka. The artist has composed 11000 sq.ft. of mural on different well-known
exhibitable walls at home and abroad.