The Bangladeshi painter Shahabuddin Ahmed amazes one and all with his creativity and inspires with his rebellious free spirit.
About a year ago, when the world-renowned painter Shahabuddin Ahmed was approached to hold an exhibition of his latest paintings in Kolkata, he was at a loss as to what the title of the exhibition should be. After much consideration and consultation with friends, the Parisbased artist of Bangladeshi origin settled on “Shanti”, or peace.
The exhibition, which was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 12 and will continue until January 16 at the Ganges Art Gallery, could not have been more appropriately titled, particularly in the context of the Paris attacks of November 13. “The naming of the exhibition has turned out to be apt, though the reason I chose the name a year ago was mainly because I wanted to keep it simple. There is so much disturbance everywhere… in Bangladesh, in Paris. The attack in Paris was a blow to the very symbol of human rights, which was France’s gift to the rest of the world,” Shahabuddin Ahmed told Frontline.
The 30 paintings on display show that even at 65, Shahabuddin Ahmed has lost none of the powers of his technique nor the creativity that has brought him international fame and innumerable awards and accolades, the latest being the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Art and Literature), which the French government conferred upon him in 2014.
Like all his paintings, the latest ones depict the power, pain, joy, strain, indomitable spirit and the exhilaration of freedom of movement. The paintings capture not just bodies in motion but also the human spirit that strains to liberate itself against its confines. “My concern is with human beings, their struggles, their pain and their victory,” he said. In the violence of the movements expressed by Shahabuddin Ahmed’s bold and immediately identifiable brushstrokes, the ultimate quest is for peace and emancipation of the body and the spirit.
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