HOME AND THE UNIVERSE

Untitled 3, mixed media on canvas, 2009.

It was pouring rain outside at Naimul Bari's inauguration of his exhibition at the Bengal Gallery. All the staff members lent hands and the furniture and fixture were brought in. The coloured bouquet was replaced by the white magnolia centre piece. The turnout was good as the weather was inclement. Kalidas Karmakar, Mahmudul Haque, Laila Sharmeen and a host of young art enthusiasts were in the turnout.

Luva Nahid Chowdhury, Director Bengal Gallery speaking at the press conference, said that she had met Bari earlier and knew him to be an amazingly hard worker. Living in New York, and having studied ceramics at Santineketan, after obtaining his Masters in Ceramics from the Ceramics section of the Department of Arts, DU, he combines his sculpting talent with painting, Luva said. He has exhibited in New York, Bhutan and Nepal.

Untitled 60, mixed media on canvas, 2011.

Bari himself, with a smile, grown gaunt through living in New York and his recent diabetes, said that in his “Momentary History” he had tried to express his inner thoughts.  

Professor Shamsul Wares, the chief speaker that evening, said that abstract was like looking for a black cat in a dark room. It is an internal world that an abstract painter delineates, he said. In the days of Zainul Abedin the world was a descriptive, idyllic place full of visual beauty.

During Pablo Picasso's time and for the analysis of synthetic cubism one looks not only for visual pleasure but also for pain. The search is for the truth. We see the world in broken bits and this is the visual world of Bari. The painter's internal world consists of man, space, and colour. It is not as easy as 2+2 = 4. When one peep's into a man's inner world, it is as if one has sucked in the world in a mobile phone. The artist experiments with the history of man, Wares said. Man has changed in a million ways since the beginning of the world. To understand him one has to know archaeology and anthropology, said Wares.

Modern poetry is rooted in man's subconscious world. Children can get Freudian delirium and cause modern art. One must have knowledge of poetry and films, food, clothes and status goes into the making of man.

Untitled, mixed media on canvas, 2007.

Untitled 65, mixed media on canvas, 2007.

Momentary Histories
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts
House: 42, Road: 16, Dhanmondi, Dhaka
The exhibition runs till August 30.