Page 404 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 401

series. The variegated arrangement of colors and lines of the wings of butterflies is
the motif of this series. The artist himself has named his paintings done in this style
as ‘abstract realistic’.
When the Wind Blows (1983), The Wave (1984), Wreck (1985), Eruption (1998),
Canto (1999), Memory (2002) are also titles of serieses painted by Murtaja Baseer.
The Canto in acrylic is completely abstract, completely devoid of any relation to the
world of visible reality. In fact, in his tireless quest in art, the figurative and the
abstract have repeatedly returned in different phases of his painting. In some phases
pure geometric structure has played the major role in constructing his pictorial
surface; and then again in his very next phase he may have reverted to the
predominance of organic forms or figuration.
Murtaja Baseers strong drawings, his many self-portraits done at different stages of his
artistic life and works in the medium of collage demand special mention.
After teaching for a length of three decades, Murtaja Baseer retired from the
Department of Fine Arts of the University of Chittagong in 2003. At present, he
resides in Dhaka. In 2005, the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts organized a retrospective
exhibition on the 55 years of research in art by Murtaja Baseer.
Murtaja Baseer has contributed significantly to literature, film and numismatics
besides his art practice. Some of his important books are Kancher Pakhir Gan
(fiction, 1969), Trasrenu (poetry, 1976), Ultramarine (novel, 1979), Murta O
Bimurta (compilation of essays, 2001), and Mudra O Shilalipir Alokey Banglar
Habshi Sultan O Tathkalin Samaj (research, 2004). He wrote the script and dialogue,
worked as the art director and also the chief assistant director of the film Nadi O Nari
based on Humayun Kabir’s novel. From 1964 to 1966, he remained more involved in
the film media.
Murtaja Baseer received various awards and honors including the ‘Ekushey Padak’
(1980) of the Bangladesh Government.
Murtaja Baseer avoided repetition and monotony in his long artistic life and has
always sought out new ways, which continues even now when he is above seventy
years of age.

Translated by Madan Shahu, Senior Assistant Editor, The Daily Star, Dhaka