& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Exhibition

Safiuddin Ahmed: Living legend in prints and paints

Fayza Haq
Safiuddin Ahmed, whose exhibition is currently being held at the Bengal Gallery to celebrate his 86th birthday, is the oldest celebrated artist alive in Bangladesh Safiuddin went into fine arts with the support of his mother when his father had passed away in the times of British Raj. He studied in Calcutta. Safiuddin has been famous for his lyrical prints from the time of Partition (1947). Along with Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Qamrul Hassan, he helped establish the Dhaka An College, teaching and print making for decades, as long as his health permitted.
Today, in his studio hang paintings and prints -- his more recent ventures, in which he has amalgamated both the past romanticism and his more recent meanderings into the world of dreams and symbols. Imagination, reality and experimentation went into these sombre works in grey, black and white, which are a sharp contrast to his neat and precise prints of the past where waves, curves, lines and dots blended with one another to present days of sunshine and harmony over the land of rivers, boats, banana trees and endless birds in the valleys. Bulrushes, tree-tops, bushes and human beings were woven into his tapestry of dreams and/eojmis cences of the raindropsand muskladen emerald and mustard fields of the Bangladeshi countryside.
He used muted colours along with his more buoyant ones but always the message was that of peace, tranquillity and harmony for days to come. Man was seen as working in unison with nature so that the farmers, fishermen and honey-gatherers were seen as the triumphant heroes of Bangladesh. Blending in the impressions of European masters with the impact of the Indian icons, Safiuddin made his own creations as his mood and imagination took him.
The recent pencil and charcoal sketches are in black. “I like black as I consider it the queen of
colours. The quality of etchings in aquatint has been brought into my drawings in order to make them rich. The images hark back to the past. I carry on with printmaking, painting and drawing as I don't wish to be divided into two different personalities,” said Safiuddin.
Asked why he went into printmaking, he said that when he
had finished studying in Calcutta at the Government School of Art in 1943, Romendranath Chakraborty, the principal, taught him pnntmaking, although it was not in his syllabus. With him in this pursuit were Adinath Mukharjee, Shotten Goshal and Murdhithal Tali - his colleagues. He considered Abdul Moin a great source of
inspiration too. Mukul Dey also guided him at one stage. "His drypoint print was like poetry in paints for me. I worked in the college studio, as I didn't have one of my own. I later studied printmaking in London at the Central School of Arts and Crafts,” said Safiuddin.
When in London, he found more
inspiration and materials. “I avoided imitating,” said Safiuddin. However, Hetter's prints in Paris, in between his career, also affected him.
Commenting on the contemporary art scene in Bangladesh, Safiuddin said that one had to maintain one's individuality, minimising here and adding there, not forgetting one's roots. A com-
plete study in academics should be kept in mind, he added.
Asked where he had enjoyed himself the most in his long years of gallery observations overseas, the printmaker nonpareil said that he found the French and Roman exhibits the richest in his experience. Each place in Europe had its own charm for him to guide him on in the journey of life.