The Magic and Mystery of Kalidas

Kalidas got the attention of the world as early as 1976 with a startling exhibition at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. He now does gives us another surprise: presenting his superb etchings simultaneously at Shilpakala Academy and at Alliance Francaise.
He makes the use of strange items like ropes, pebbles and cowries to complement his philosophical attitude towards art. His attraction for the surreal as well as his keenness to present white upon white and his use of Tantric philosophy predominate his works. His use of symbols—both from Hinduism and other religions, lend interest and depth to his work.
As a past maser of art he is excellent both at mixed media painting and at sculpture collage. As a pioneer of installation, he wishes to make the French viscosity process popular in Bangladesh. He learnt from Professor S W Hayter at his Atelier 71 in Paris in the early eighties. Hayter invented the colour technique, by which you can take multicoloured prints in one impression. Versatile Kalidas has trained many graphic artists.
In the exhibition at Alliance Francaise he presents 34 pieces of art. He felt that print should be introduced to Bangladesh. In 1980 he was introduced to art lovers, along with Qamrul Hasan. He then went to Paris to study Viscosity where Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall etc had studied. Having obtained the fellowship to Japan he learnt to make his own paper. Now there are many ateliers where print making is done like the Kibria Print Workshop, the one at Cosmos gallery. There will now be the one at Shilpakala Academy named after Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin.

At the opening of the exhibition, “Alluvial Rhythm”, at Alliance Francaise, there were many artist of renown, like Biren Shome, Syed Iqbal, Proshanto Karmakar, Annie Islam and Mustafa Zaman from Depart. This was despite the fact that it was a hartal day and people wished to be safe indoors. Bruno Plasse, the Director took the place of the French Ambassador, H E Sophie Aubert who could not come, although she had wished so much that she could have attended it. He spoke of how important Atelier 71, where Kalidas had studied under Heyter. In the exhibition, he said, old and more recent works were being displayed. The evening was balmy with Dilip Das playing the flute. A ribbon was not cut; a candle was lit instead. There was the installation with 14 human heads and a miniature of the viscosity printing machine.
Samarjit Rai Chowdhury, the next speaker the evening said how Kalidas 'works and thoughts had no bounds, where the thought process was concerned. It was through his art that Kalidas is known all over the world today. It is through his prints that one can entangle his thought processes.

Dr Marek Bartelik, a visiting connoisseur from Warsaw said the richness of the city with artists overwhelmed him. Bartelik represented UNESCO, which had over 50 chapters of the institution. He hoped to add Dhaka as yet another chapter.
As one enters the gallery, it is Kalidas's typical attempt to combine the bizarre and fantastical that will greet you: The image of a cow with a lashing tail that ends up as a vulture and a man's skull. Serpentine imagery and leaves are everywhere in his prints. An old man's face merges with that of a horned goat. The man's nose is sharp and he sports a beard. His rib cage and cranium are apparent. The man has a burning arrow in his hand. He is followed by a wild man with long hair and open mouth, the body of the main figure is a squiggle which ends in a cock bearing a flower in the mouth.

There was then a creation of the image of a man with curly hair and bear with circles on the body. The balances of an astrolabe -like dark object bearing an apple which is rotten in its core, Kalidas has been inspired by the evil and ugly. He says he cannot make beautiful prints as around him he sees society eaten to the core. There is nothing beautiful to dream about or hope for.
His word is barren as was that of T.S Eliot's.
Female figures are featured in this collection – a magnificient Kali in her splendour of gold and pearls as well as the beautiful Nurjahan resplkendent in her ornaments and sequinned dupatta. There is the delineation of painful, realistic nails on the door above the head of a goddess. There is a beaker of burning human heads above. To the left is the face of an emperor with turban crown an egret feather. On an ornate wrought iron stand is a candle. There is calligraphy in Bangla on the two sides.
In another work Kalidas depicts Meraj or the horse on which the Prophet Mohammed (pbh) was suppose to have flown to heaven. The creature is wearing a crow with the bejewelled crescent shaped crown of precious stones—the crescent as we know is the symbol of Islam. The body of the horse has designs and intricate, inter-lacing patterns. The 'Meraj' is following a buzzard with ornate symbols of Islam, taken from the Koran. It has the symbol of the crescent moon too on its back.
Kalidas with his mastery of printmaking will always amaze his audience through his complex imagery of living beings trying to cope with a turbulent world.