A quest for technique and form
Takir Hossain appreciates an artist's commitment
Monir
Sala Zuloaga
Coca Garrido Fuendetodos
The book has come out from Spain and art aficionados will get a chance to enjoy the renowned artist Monirul Islam's printmaking from the year 1973 to 2006. The time is a big journey for a printmaker. He has devoted himself to the print media for more than three and a half decades. His major specialty is printmaking and it is this inclination which has helped him to hold his position in the forefront of the Spanish art scene. But his profound grasp and expression regarding other mediums is really praiseworthy. He is exceedingly fond of experimenting and trying out new forms and techniques. To search for fresh themes and present them with a novel approach is one of his characteristics.
The book has mainly focused on Monir's major print works of the last thirty-three years. The publisher has tried to focus on a good number of his significant works in the book. Most of his prints have done through etching and aquatint. The photographic quality is remarkable and encompasses many horizons. Coca Garrido, a renowned Spanish art critic, has written the only essay in this book. The article is thought-provoking and cerebrally enlightening. Coca has known the artist long and so she could easily interpret the artist's life.
Artist Monirul Islam is regarded by art critics and experts as having been most influential in the 1960s. In effect, though, he has continued to exercise a profound sway not only over art in this region but also of the contemporary art world in general. Every year Monirul Islam is invited to lecture at renowned universities, including Madrid University of Fine Arts and Fonde Todes, the latter the birthplace of the artist Francisco Goya.
During the 1960s, among the number of outstanding painters who flourished in Bangladesh, Monirul Islam shone because of his remarkable originality in style and presentation. Intensely taken up with subtle experimentation, his quest for fresh techniques and forms has led him to explore novel approaches. It is this inclination, which has helped him to hold his position consistently in the forefront of the Bangladesh art scene.
Monir as an artist is easily recognised as he can translate life's diverse dimensions with his singular style, techniques and innovations into captivating works, where colours, lines, textures and forms blend in synchronisation. Monirul Islam controls his medium and his technique with a certain mastery. His works express a special meaning, which has aesthetic and stylistic uniqueness.
The artist claims that an artist cannot aspire to greatness unless he allows "the sense of inner vision" to grow and mature. It is this maturity which leads to "awareness of and response to ideas." Only through acute observation comes discovery of truth, that is, knowledge in all its essence brought about by understanding that is given to us through the process of trail and error. Beauty is what a creative artist brings in from seeming nothingness. It is an artist's individual personality that colours his works.
Derived from the natural world, the delicacy of Monir's lines and the mind-boggling colours are found to have evolved today into a more traditional style where gripping, vivid abstractions weave stark realistic punctuations. The artist likes to work with different geometric forms, transforming them amazingly into tangible expressions of art. Right now that seems to be a prime characteristic in his works. Monir tries to replicate Nature's colour synchronisation in his works according to the language of the Third Millennium. The space that is found to adorn his works is hierarchical in that the most important forms take precedence by position rather than by perspective, resulting in abstract relationships. Monir's enhanced use of the romantic background matched by sensual colours and remarkable themes turn the paintings with their abstractions of landscape, and the transparency of the mixed-media technique into sheer masterpieces of art. In his compositions, Monir uses little doodles, sharp lines, dots, tiny motifs and a lot of symbols.
Monir has done many watercolors, which primarily focus on the unparalleled beauty of Nature. In the late 1960s, Monir emerged as an accomplished water colorist, with studies mostly of life on land and water. Before 1969 - the year he left for Spain on a scholarship to study traditional mural - Monir was very much into painting, both oil and water colour. Monir has done a few graphic works in Dhaka to get an idea of the method. Spain drew him into the enchanting world of etching, to which he later submerged his artistic faculty to gradually come out of his impressionistic tendencies and concentrate on different contemporary issues. That was a turning point in his life.
Whenever Monir visits Bangladesh, he uses as a medium the folded paper that forms the base of sweetmeat paper packs. He came across this paper on a visit to Chandpur and since then he has worked with this medium.
From his self-made niche in the art world of Madrid, Monir has gone on to win the most prestigious awards in his adopted country, the Spanish National Grand Prize. A workaholic and charismatic character, Monir is always at work creating the offbeat with phenomenal improvisation and panache. By inventing new forms and exploring different themes, he has acquired a distinguished position in the global art milieu.
Takir Hossain is a journalist and art critic.
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