Page 406 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 403

duration of this scholarship was one year. However, witnessing his skill, the university
provided him with an international scholarship and the position of research assistant.
Although he started his master’s course in oil painting, ultimately he got his degree in
printmaking. He took a course in sculpture in the final year.
It may be observed that Abdur Razzaque preferred to work in various media right from
when he began his art education. He says, ‘Only in this way may an artist achieve
completeness.’ 62 He tried to present the characteristics of each medium with the
highest level of dexterity from his student life. Along with this, his art works included
the visible and the invisible side by side. His visual language changed depending on
the medium. Sometimes critics have labeled him as an abstract artist and sometimes
he was called a romantic naturalist. One may try to understand his artworks by picking
up the clues presented by the visual character apparent in his works rather than putting
him in any particular category.
Abdur Razzaque worked in watercolor, oil color and printmaking. He did sculpture. A
major part of his works included drawings. He did not do drawing as primary drafts
of artworks. Drawing was a main medium for him. These drawings bear the testimony
of his perceptions on art. He was extremely spontaneous and comfortable in this fig. 9.36 James
medium. One can understand from his conversations that his drawing teacher, Leachey, Painter,
Professor James Leachey had influenced him greatly when he was doing his higher drawing pen and ink,
studies. In this period the common subject was drawing. After finishing the course, 1956
Abdur Razzaque got the opportunity to work in the drawing
laboratory. This is where he had James Leachey as his teacher.
Leachey had done drawings all his life. Drawing was his
obsession. He also collected drawings. His collection included
drawings by famous artists like Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso and
Braque. Abdur Razzaque recalled the names of other teachers
during his higher studies. His teacher of printmaking was
Mauricio Lasansky, teacher of aesthetics Lester D. Longman
and teacher of sculpture, Humbert Albrizio. However, it is likely
that James Leachey had the greatest influence on the artistic life
of Abdur Razzaque. He also became fond of collecting things
like Leachey. He collected works by other artists and kept notes
of theories and information that he got from time to time.
Above all these, there was the major influence of his teacher
Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin on the life of the artist Abdur
Razzaque. Talking about the works of Zainul Abedin, Abdur
Razzaque said, ‘Zainul Abedin wanted to work in many
different media and styles – drawing, watercolor, some works in
the contemporary style but his drawing surpasses all. Without
doubt, his works on the famine put him unquestionably in the
forefront. In these works his spontaneous emotions and power