Page 411 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

408 ART AND CRAFTS

in Bangladesh was introduced through him. Until then, the sole example of modern
sculptural practice was the works done by Novera in the fifties. Novera had come back
home in 1956 after completing her studies in sculpture in Europe. She had done
sculpture here and did a solo sculpture exhibition at the Central Public Library in
1960. Novera had introduced the people of Bangladesh with western modern
sculpture. She had left for Europe within a short time.
In such a situation, Abdur Razzaque was given the responsibility of starting the
institutional education of sculpture. It has been said before that he had specialized in
printmaking and as he had interest in many media he had taken a course in sculpture
while doing his masters degree. This experience and his interest in various media gave
him the courage to establish this department. From this time onwards, he himself
became specially focused on the practice of sculpture.
Face of a woman-1 (Bronze) (pl. 2.13), Face of a woman-2 (white cement) and Sitting
(bronze) – are works of Abdur Razzaque done in 1964 which were all done studying
the model. Here in these works we can observe the qualities of his model drawing.
Sensitive contour and finding relationship among various planes are common
characteristics of these works. Naturally, these have been achieved in the western
method. Here we must mention that the practice of art, specially the practice of
sculpture in Bangladesh reflects the distance that the Muslims of Bengal felt with the
tradition and culture of their own land due to politics and religious belief since the
British period. As a result, the modern institutional practice of sculpture could not be
related with the rich tradition of sculpture of Bengal. It can be said that this trend
started with these early works of Abdur Razzaque done in the academic tradition. It
will also not be irrelevant to state that prior to these works, the works done by Novera
were also fully committed to western modernism.
Open-air sculpture is a special form of sculpture, which was made possible in the early
stage of sculptural practice in Bangladesh by the War of Liberation. In 1972, Abdur
Razzaque did a black and white sculpture titled Shaheen for the Air Force Head
Quarters through the patronization of the defense forces. In the same year Abdur
Razzaque did the first open air sculpture titled Freedom Fighter (white cement and
concrete/height 42 feet) through the initiative of Brigadier Amin Ahmed Chowdhury
Bir Pratik and some other freedom fighters (fig. 2.50). The work was installed at the
Jaydevpur cross road. The place is now known as Jagrata Chourangi. The work
presented the simplified form of reality.
Abdur Razzaque did his sculptures mainly in three media. He tried to grasp the
characteristics of each medium and the language of his work changed depending on
the medium. For example, 1. He used clay and did casting in cement or bronze. In
these works, his subjects were human figures. In presentation, he emphasized visual
observation. 2. Wood carving. In these works he mainly did abstract forms. These
works include Construction-2 (1975), Sculpture (1975), and Form (1976). In these
works, he used the original form of the wood piece to create the form of his sculpture.