Another Great Treat at Saju's

Safiuddin Ahmed, The Cry, 1980.

Like every other year, this year's collection at Saju's art gallery, had an impressive 87 artists and 127 pieces.
The art works of Qamrul Hassan SM Sultan , Safiuddin Ahmed were amongst the rare collections of the gallery. Aminul Islam's poetry stood out as a rare piece, with its decorations in black, bringing in the birds and the trees in swirling shapes. There were then the angry eyes of Safiuddin Ahmed, burning with fury at the atrocities committed by a fascist army on the people. There was then the creations by SM Sultan, who created men and animals twice their real size, to bring home the point that these farmers and fishermen were necessary for our existence. Bijon Chowdhury depicted brave men on horses, as part of our initial response over the Paki forces.
There is then Syed Jehangir's 'Rest', which depicts innumerable boats with their poles gathered around a large piece of land, as if resting, after having collected the harvest of hilsas, from the ink-blue waters, around the land pulsating with life. There is then Shahbuddin Ahmed's 'Bull' which appears to be fighting with all his horns and hoofed feet just for a breath of life. Showing people and animals in motion has always been his forte. Rafiqun Nabi's white cattle, whizzing past with their trucks of paddy through, chunks of green and brown fields, with the distant trees, bring, the idyllic image of 'Ruposhi Bangla' to mind –where there are acres of fields to be crossed, before the market place is reached. Murtaja Baseer's 'Girl with Dishevelled Hair' is a lively sketch. Samarjit Rai Chowdhury's 'Essence of Culture' with the division of the land in millions of tiny sectors, has each bit vibrating with life.

Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Essence of Culture, acrylic on canvas, 2012.

Monirul Islam's 'Lemon Rain' has bits of black and lemon yellow to depict the harmony of rain in Bangladesh. The subdued colours are not easy to forget. Kanak Chanpa Chakma's 'Ritual' brings in the beauty of the ethnic people dancing in unison. They sport yellow and red flowers in their hair, long chains of silver on their necks, and coined belts for their hips. At the back are symbols of music in their life in black and baby blue. Abdus Shakoor Shah displays his vivid imagination, in his painting of a blue and white bird, sitting on top of a container, with a butterfly of its body, and surrounded by a wreath of black twigs against a brick wall. It appears simply bursting with colours and lined by a red and white pattern of hues makes 'the Pitcher with Crow' appear radiant indeed. Mahmudul Haque's 'Pleasure of Creation' is something new for a man who indulged in trees and greens in his earlier days. Here we are confronted with birds in flight - or so the creation appears – with its fresh yellow and white emptiness around the flying images. Biren Some's indulgence in green, white and black is certainly a far cry from his moving away from his rivers and natural charm of his childhood memories. Abul Barq Alvi's work remains as abstract as before. However it has picked up more colours like blue, yellow and red, which make the piece more lively than his other work, to the average viewer.
Jamal Ahmed's love for creating beauty in the ordinary passersby is well known. His 'Old Man' from the streets, with white egret hair and flowing beard, along with his 'ek-tara' , or whatever the instrument , is done with care, precision and love. Abdus Sattar's 'Sona Bou'- is a joy in female form—with the pearl rings, the pearl necklaces, burnished red 'orna'. She carries a yellow bird in her hands and gazes at us with a steady smile on her lips. The flowers growing behind her head, beyond the fence, at the back, lands charm to this combination of human being and nature. Rokeya Sultana, who, has a composition with lace fragments and circles in blue and white—giving the creation a magical , mysterious air, Farida Zaman's work has always been lively. Whether she deals with fish, cats, fisherwomen or just flowers. Here her black birds appear ready to tear the ground for food. We see the disc of the sun at the back. At the sides are expanse of the dried land. Hamiduzzaman Khan 's image from Cambodia, where he'd been to sculpt, Ranjit Das's “Passion” where a young woman sits ideally or Asma Kibria's “Colour of Freedom” — all pulsate with the rhythm of life.
 The exhibition ended on 18th May.