Page 375 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

372 ART AND CRAFTS

We observe that at this period his works tended to flow in the Abstract Expressionist
direction. Figures vanished from his works and sometimes absence of structure engulfed
his compositions as we find in Action Painting (Red, 1966, Black and White, 1966,
Black and Gray, 1966, Black and Gray, 1968). At times his lines tended to become
restless and indefinite. But this tendency did not become permanent. Kibria left the
slackness of composition and came back to the discipline of structure in the 70s. At one
stage he started to feel close with the Color-field artists. Mark Rothko is his favorite
artist. But Kibria himself reminds us, ‘Rothko is more geometric than lyrical. Also he
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has not worked with texture.’ On the other hand, European artists Alberto Burri and
Antoni Tapies- whose names are related to the Art Informel movement are favorite
artists of Kibria. 15 When we see the works of Kibria, we are reminded of the works of
these artists. Kibria does not have any conflicts or contradictions about it. He says, if an
artist can add only five percent of individual creativity in the work the artist does then
the artist may be considered a successful one. 16
Mohammad Kibria says that Abstract Expressionism created ripples within him and in
the sixties when he got attracted towards this movement, it had crossed state
boundaries all over the world. But how did this international art form became the tool
for Kibria’s artistic expression? Kibria never lived in the cities of Europe, he did not
have the experience of living a two dimensional life in tragic geometry, he did not
have the memory of long war and genocide. But it was such a time when sensitive
human minds all over the world came to know that the foundation of humanity was
badly shaken, the term ‘eternal’ was shaken in terms of belief, human relationship and
feelings. In such times disturbed humanity said, ‘The first half of the century ended at
Hiroshima, the second half began with gravest doubts about the human species being
around to record its end.’ 17
What if Kibria took himself for a man of these sad times and became skeptical about
the very meaning of his existence? What if art had become a project of discovering the
meaning of his existence? It seems that in the early 60s Kibria was engulfed with such
existentialist thoughts regarding art, the artists, self and their usefulness. Perhaps,
Kibria needed to ‘attest’ or make his own existence ‘meaningful’ through his art.
Kibria gave himself an identity within the crowd by creating the image of his mind in
his canvas.
Even today Kibria says, ‘Art is mainly a matter of the subconscious. It has to go
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through pictorial realization in the end, but that is not the essence of art.’ We may
remember that one of the artists closely related to the Art Informel movement,
Dubuffet of France said, ‘Art should go to the roots of mental activity, where thought
is close to its birth.’ 19
We know that during that period in Dhaka Shamsur Rahman, Shahid Quadri or Al
Mahmud in poetry, Syed Waliullah, Shahidullah Kaiser, Rashid Karim or Syed
Shamsul Haque in short stories and novels and Zahir Raihan or Sadeque Khan in film-
within various limitations, were trying to do experiments. Some of them were trying
to touch the language of art that had no state boundary, some tried to find the artistic
expression of urban sensibilities, some tried to create a language to seek the identity