Page 374 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 371

teacher in oil painting was Takeshi Hayaki. He learned etching from Professor Komai
and woodcut from artist Hideyo Hagiwara. He took lessons on woodcut in this artist’s
10
studio twice a week. The three dimensionality of wood and stone made him conscious
about texture. The process of ‘becoming’ of the lifeless three-dimensional objects felt
like an exciting process of creation to him. During his stay in Japan Kibria got the
opportunity of seeing the works of a number of major, contemporary artists of the
world. He saw the works of American artists like Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning,
Franz Klein, Spanish artist Antoni Tapies, Italian artist Alberto Burri and French artist
Pierre Soulages. 11 Through this process, Kibria started to feel close with some
contemporary international art movements like Abstract Expressionism or Art
Informel. This introduction helped Kibria reach maturity and progress in the journey he
had already started.
Other things that attracted Kibria in Japan were the geometric rhythm of the cities and
the nature, some sort of centrifugal composition in the use of space everywhere, the
soft-spoken, almost silent populace and the sublime influence of Buddhist Zen
philosophy in life and art. Kibria was greatly influenced by the garden art of Japan. 12
He, perhaps, felt an allegiance with the sublime beauty and the sense of somber silence
that was created by the combination of stone and space. The wash technique and the use
of white in Japanese painting also added to this. Some black and white lithographs that
Kibria did in 1960-61 bear the sign of such somber monumentality and the caring touch
of the wash (9.9). Kibria says that, he started these works feeling inspired from the
general characters of calligraphy. Did the balanced geometry and calm sense of history
of calligraphy somehow combine with the black and white Reflex painting of Franz
Klein? Did the spatial inspiration of the Japanese garden and the white textured surface fig. 9.10 Amber,
of Klein influence Kibria simultaneously? According to Kibria himself, the possibilities lithograph, 1968
and challenges of lithograph as a medium also stimulated his creative instincts along
with all these catalysts. 13
From this time onwards, the illusive plane of the third dimension
started to appear in the paintings and prints of Kibria through the
effects of texture. Texture has depicted the struggle for creation
(Two Flowers, 1960), created the mirror image of erosion
(Composition, 1963) and much later (Erosion, 1988) given the
viewers the feeling of facing the monumentality of cosmic events
(Amber, 1968). Especially, in lithograph, Kibria used the erosion
of stone with great craftsmanship to create the richness of texture
(fig. 9.10). The complementary use of white and back or ash in
the works Kibria of the 60s and 70s have created an environment
of silent conflict. It is indeed silent, because the spatial
composition reminds us more of ritualistic separation rather than
chaotic noise. One such work is Composition Black of 1976. On
the other hand, the supplementary presence of ash and black or
black and blackish green give the feeling of discovery of distance
within closeness.