Page 49 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

46 ART AND CRAFTS

Murtaja Baseer not only created paintings, murals, prints and sculptures, he also
explored the realms of literature, filmmaking and research. His creativity reflects an
ever-changing and inquisitive mind, thus he has worked with various representational
and abstract styles at different points of time. The subject of most of the paintings by
him during the period of 1954-60 was a simplified reality of the everyday middle class
and lower-middle class life. Each painting is purposefully composed and organized in
a geometric measure, the artist’s attention to line and space is meticulous– the
inspiration of Cubism is clearly evident. From 1959, Murtaja Baseer’s lines became
transparent and revealed even the internal structure of objects. The clash and counter
clash within intersecting transparent planes create a firm image structure which gives
his paintings a powerful harmony. From 1960-61, Murtaja Baseer began to be drawn
towards complete abstraction, the full outcome of which can be observed in his Wall
series of painting executed during the period of 1967-72. The conflicting colors and
clustered textures here reflect an agitated state of mind and it reveals the frustration and
mental suffering of the artist. The subsequent Epitaph for the Martyrs series is an
example of his exploration of abstraction. In subsequent times, Murtaja Baseer has
brought back representational subjects to his canvas; these were created by using lines
and application of bright flat colors influenced by folk art. In very recent times, the
artist has captured the radiance of the colors of butterfly wings (fig. 1.26) on his canvas
through his original compositions. Apart from painting, Murtaja Baseer is one of the
major mural painters of this country. Geometric composition and two-dimensional
structure of the pictorial surface, which is also a key feature of his painting, and his
skills in line drawing have given his mural paintings an artistic authenticity and high
degree of technical proficiency. Mudrar Bibartan (Evolution of currency) in the
Bangladesh Bank building done in 1966 in oil painting and the Martyrs Tree mosaic in
fig. 1.26 Murtaja Rajshahi University done in 1974 with pieces of burnt brick can be mentioned in this
Baseer, Wing-2, oil, context. He also did some distinctive work as a printmaker.
1994 Abdur Razzaque has practiced in all the three media: painting, sculpture, and
printmaking. His stay in United States in the fifties within the environment of recent
trends in art brought him close to a different
realization of modern art. Subsequently he
kept on moving towards Abstract
Expressionism and his attempts in art in
various media were unified in this trend. His
painting mainly comes from nature. He
wishes to express the familiar look of nature
in a truth greater then reality where the
external structures become nonexistent and
only the fundamental colors in their different
degrees of radiance and only the resonance
of moving-glittering of light and shadow
remain. Although his paintings emerge from