Page 367 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

364 ART AND CRAFTS

Hamidur Rahman has made an unforgettable place in
the history of Bangladesh by designing the Shaheed
Minar. Moreover, his artworks brought him many
awards at home and abroad. The National Award in
1972 and first prize in the fifth Teheran Biennale can be
specially mentioned. The Government of Pakistan
decorated him with ‘President Award of Pride of
Performance for Paintings’ in 1970. The government of
Bangladesh honored him with ‘Ekushey Award’in 1980.
Hamidur Rahman pursued teaching besides his practice
of art. He was a professor at Canada’s Macdonald
Cartier Polytechnic, Montreal from 1975 to 1985.
Hamidur Rahman married Ashraf Jahan in 1960. They
have two sons, and a daughter. He suffered from heart
disease twice in 1987. On November 19, 1988 he
suffered a heart attack for the last time and passed away.
Hamidur Rahman is one of the leading artist of the
abstract trend of this country. On the one hand he used
the dynamics of different colors to represent the
fig. 9.2 Cyclone, oil, emotions and, on the other, he created figurative paintings and murals dominated by
1973 forms with clear contour lines (fig. 9.2). In the artist’s exhibition of 1956 the technical
aspect of his paintings drew the attention of critics, ‘The thickness and weight of oil
color seems most necessary for the thought process and subject matter and the force
of application in the artist’s work. It has been given the freedom to express its own
character by being applied by the spatula, cloth and hand. However he has no
prejudice in using the brush. But not only the brush, starting from ordinary press ink,
sand, sawdust, lime, bran and even nails have helped him to create his paintings.’ 3
The traits of the expressionist style is apparent in Hamidur Rahman’s works, specially
in the fifties and sixties. The agitations present in young hearts are diminished with
maturity, maybe it evolves and matures in a different way. The preoccupations of his
times had emerged in the artist’s refinement of abstract paintings although Hamid
returned again to the figurative. However, his work remains uniquely stylized and is
in no way realistic. Yet, comments of the critics about his mental inclination in the
decade of the sixties which were manifested only in lines, colors and forms deserves
mention here, ‘Rahman, the artist of inner reality, is still probing to fathom the depth
that touches the bottom of consciousness. And from this investigation he has found an
4
excellent form that is exclusively his own.’ [Trans.]
Hamidur Rahman’s artistic-consciousness was alert with nationalistic feelings.
Although he carried on experimentation with European trends of art, he expressed
artistic reaction on contemporary events of the country. He had an intimate quest
which began in his early youth when he was a 22-year old student at Dhaka’s Institute