“When not printmaking, my thoughts are frozen”

Palash Baran Biswas (Surjo), 28, an MFA, says “True art is like pure poetry: It has no purpose behind it. It expresses just the feelings and aspirations.” His mentors included Abul Barq Alvi, Rokeya Sultana and Anisuzzaman.

Palash believes that an artist has to be isolated when painting. No one can enter his thoughts or his painting. The artist is there to project his ideas and feelings. The socio economic and political bindings are reflected in an artist's work he adds.

As a child it was poetry that attracted him and he spent much of his free time writing poetry. After his HSC, he realised that art too was a medium through which he could express his innermost feelings.
But why printmaking specifically one may wonder. Palash explains that he wanted to create a separate impression. When one goes through a copper or a zinc plate and puts nitric acid for biting, the image is more expressive than a painting.

In his second year, he could draw, and go in for figure work. He learnt under Sheikh Md. Rukunuzzam and Joya Shareen Huq. As Alvi and Rokeya guided him, they had intense discussions on experimentation with the media, working out what the images could be like.

Being an ardent fan of printmaking, there is little he doesn't know about his favourite medium.
“In metal engraving A burn is used to engrave a line into copper or zinc. The burr is removed and a print is taken from the incised line,” says Palash. “In Drypoint the plate is printed in the normal way for an Intaglio image but special care is taken to wipe the surface gently to avoid destroying the burr. The ink is oil-based and the paper dampened.

“In Linocut, linoleum was originally developed as a flooring material. It is constructed on a backing of jute made with a variety of ingredients, including linseed oil. In intaglio print the finished intaglio is a result of two distinct steps, the first being the establishment of the image on the plate. The quality of the print can be as creative a process as printmaking.”

When he does not work in print, he feels stifled. Even when he paints and sketches Palash says he feels his thoughts are frozen.

In Art, he loves post Impressionism. He doesn't care for the Surrealism of Dali. It is artists like Gustav Courbet, and Honore Daumier. 1808-1878 (who worked with old people, drawing with realism), who brought in stone cutters and hunters of food) . They had concern for the reality around them and they rejected the impractical and the visionary. As for Goya, he expressed through printmaking his dislike of cruel and mindless war, when the French were the masters of Spain under Nepoleon Bonaparte.

Palash has a special fondness for Sunil Gangapadhya' poetry and the books of Somresh Mojumder's fiction like 'Kalbela' and 'Kalpurush'. Needless to say , he admires Rabindranath's 's poetry.
In the art world, Safiuddin Ahmed has been his idol.

“He exhibited only twice in his lifetime” says Palash. “He wanted to improve his paintings throughout his life. He would not say outright, but guided through hints, I am told. His experiments were not simple His teachings were not easy but difficult. I like Mohammed Kibria's abstractions too. I admire his 'Two Flowers'. I also think no end of Monirul Islam's prints. He had a sketching style of his own. His simplification of lines and colours was tremendous. I admire Rafiqun Nabi's woodcuts such as the 'Wet crows' and 'Dead Mainas in a cage.”
In Palash's recent experiments with printmaking he has a burqa-clad woman sitting and reading a book. In the rest of the series she has her head bent forward. The other image has the same woman with a guitar. In yet another has the woman dozing off on the chair. She was reading with her back to a man, lost in his book.
The prints which are like old black and white photographs seem to symbolise the multi-dimensional reality of woman – it breaks the stereotype of ignorance and backwardness associated with women in Muslim communities.