Photo: STAR

Md Asaduz Zaman, Ju

Marking the 97th birth anniversary of the legendary art maestro S M Sultan, a twelve day long international Sultan Fair and art exhibition concluded at Narail, recently. The Avant-grade artist was born in 1923. The festival was organised by Narail district administration, in collaboration with the local S M Sultan Foundation.

This year’s celebration was dedicated to the 100th birthday of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. An international art camp was hosted near the banks of Chitra river’s campus of Narail Government Victoria College with the presence of foreign artists across the world.

The art camp created opportunities for the Bangladeshi artists, where they exchanged their thoughts and presented the culture of Bangladesh to the foreign artists.

All of the artists participating in the exhibition expressed their gratitude towards S M Sultan. The great artists’ work had an influence in their lives.

Zimbabwean artist Hazvineyi Bridget Mutasa, Indian artist Rupali Roy and Rrajoshri, Bangladeshi artist Topu Khan, Fahmida Khatun, Shamim Reza, Elias Hossan, Samir Boiragi, among others created beautiful artworks.

Hazvineyi Bridget Mutasa’s piece exposed an African baby’s face with white-pink-red texture representing her own country culture and society. “I discovered S M Sultan’s work on the internet, thus I came here to visit his house and attended the fair because he inspired me a lot,” she said.

Artist Shamim Reza, Associate Professor and Project Director, Jahangirnagar University (JU), with patchwork and Bangladeshi Katha design, added new dimensional artworks on the exhibition. His artworks highlight vibrant colours and different kinds of handmade beads.

Artist Fahmida Khatun’s Bengali bride, playing with colours like yellow and blue often expressing the mixed emotion of both happiness and sadness of a bride in our society.

Terracotta artist Tupo Khan beautifully engaged local culture and life with terracotta works.

Artists Elias Hossain, Hazvineyi Bridget Mutasa, Rupali Roy, among others, were honoured with ‘Best Sultan Award’ form the exhibition.