Contemporary paintings and works of the 60s on display at Galleri Kaya

The works of nine well-known artists are on display at an exhibition being held at the Galleri Kaya in Dhaka’s Uttara, where works from past decades share space with contemporary ones.

Themed ‘Drawing’, the show hosts 49 paintings, including one by artist Murtaza Bashir done in the 1960s.

The works of Chandra Shekhar Dey, Ratan Mazumdar, Jamal Ahmed, Kazi Rajeeb, Ranjit Das, Shishir Bhattacharya, Gautam Chakrabarty and Mohammad Iqbal also feature along with the one by Bashir.

The exhibition is open to visitors daily from 11am to 8pm.

The show opened on Friday evening. Artists of different ages arrived at the gallery around dusk—Ranjit Das, Mohammad Iqbal and Gautam Chakrabarty were among them.

State Minister Nasrul Hamid arrived around the same time. He looked at the paintings put up in the gallery’s several rooms, and the joined the artists in an ‘adda’ (get-together).

It emerged from the conversation that the state minister for power and energy was himself a painter. It is a hobby he cherishes.

At the inauguration function held around 7pm, he spoke of the relationship between art and politics.

Hamid said: “Many consider paintings and politician to be an incongruous match. But I feel there is a connection between the two.

“Politics is related to people. Paintings too are related to people and their minds.”

He added: “Some feel politicians talk too much. But we also want to see; that’s why I am here.”

Hamid said there was a time when government offices were encouraged to have paintings on their walls, but the practice was now on the wane.

 “This should be revived. We must play a big role in preserving the works of our artists. We can discuss the issue.”

In the course of the conversation, the National Museum’s first director general, Prof Enamul Haq, recalled the setting up of the country’s first gallery.

Haq had joined the museum as its assistant curator and risen to become its director general.

Reminiscing about the 50s and the 60s, he said: “The fact that we had no art gallery used to make ponder. So, I sought paintings from 30 artists. I said, ‘Give us pictures, we will pay when we are in good times’. In 1962, 29 artists gave their works. I started a gallery with those paintings. Once it became popular, others, too, contributed.”

“Twenty years later, in 1982, we gave Tk 10,000 to each of these artists. I bought another two painting from each of them. That’s how the art gallery in the National Museum got started.”

There was a pleasant surprise waiting at the end of the inaugural programme: Artist Gautam Chakrabarty walked up with a bouquet of flowers, greeting State Minister Hamid on his birthday. The cutting of a birthday cake followed. The ringing of a bell announced the exhibition’s formal launching after this function.

Ranjit Das, whose work is on display, told bdnews24.com: “We must see paintings to hone our sense of beauty. Those who see paintings don’t have criminal or wicked thoughts crossing their minds.

“We must fall back on the beauty of art if we are to overcome the acrimony, violence, and killings plaguing our society. Art is an expression of the feeling an artist has after seeing something beautiful. We want to spread that feeling to resist a process of degeneration.”

Later in the evening, schoolteacher Ashok Biswas joined the gathering.

He said he often went to see such shows out of his love for art and his involvement as a painter.

Exhibition coordinator Rajen Gayen told bdnew24.com that, although Murtaza Bashir’s painting had been done in 1962, the artist added a few strokes to it as late as 2012.

bdnews24.com is the event’s media partner. It is being sponsored by IT and telecommunications company ADN Telecom.