editor's note
Re-framing Lal Miah
There is a whole array of art where the resonance of the seemingly 'private' and 'secular' becomes conspicuous, or so the haute bourgeoisie would prefer to believe. With a high Read
newsscape
'Crossfire' debacle: Drik under siege
Drik Picture Library was forcibly closed down on March 22 by the police to prevent the launch of the photography exhibition entitled 'Crossfire', by photojournalist Dr Shahidul Alam, organized by Pathshala, Read
Syed Jamil Ahmed : receives NSD award
In acknowledgment of his contribution to the field of theatre as scholar, director and designer, the National School of Drama (NSD), India, has recently honoured Dr Syed Jamil Ahmed with Read
Spain honours Monirul Islam
Artist Monirul Islam, one of the most illustrious Bangladeshi expatriates living in Europe, has recently been honoured with 'The Cross of Officer of the Order of Queen Isabella', which is Read
Sayeed Ahmed passes away
Sayeed Ahmed, an iconic figure whose dramaturgic and critical exploits bore all the signs of the ingenious personalities who were behind the nineteenth-century thrust towards modernism, passed away on January Read
Dhaka Art Center launched with '101 artists' exhibition
Dhaka Art Center (DAC) has formally begun its journey with an exhibition of '101 artists' on April 10, 2010.It kick started with the launch of a 10-day-long exhibition showcasing works from the Read
Subramanyan's visit at a glance
India's preeminent artist and scholar K G Subramanyan was in Bangladesh on a ten-day visit attending a string of events designed to celebrate culture and the arts. Subramanyan inaugurated the Read
Cosmos-Atelier71: the journey begins
Formally launched on October 23rd, 2009, the 'Cosmos-Atelier71 Print making Studio', a centre for graphic arts, organized a two-day printmaking workshop from January 29th to January 30th. During the workshop a Read
features
Covering Identity: Diversity Festival As A Problematic Location
The Cultural Diversity Festival organized by Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Facility (CHTDF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has experienced its first few hiccups – if one is willing to call Read
writes AONGGYAJAI MARMA
Revisiting Havell's values: Neo-Bengal School, The zeal for revivalism and Rabindranath's reevaluation
During the colonial period, in the in-search of an identity which was signified in the lineage of Kolkata-based modern Bengali art practices towards the end of the 19th century, the Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN
Identifying Bangladeshi art in the context of Modernism
The quote above illustrates how acquiescent the colonized became vis-à-vis the knowledge of the former colonizer in the post-independence (1947) regime. Though the subsequent reflections by the same author otherwise Read
writes GOLAM MORTUJA
The resistant corpus: Recontextualizing the communal vision of Lal Miah*
The sage-of-an-artist that was Sheikh Muhammad Sultan bore another name – Lal Miah (1923-94) – which was his original. Of all the articles written on Lal Miah's work, Ahmed Sofa's seems to be Read
writes SHAKHAWAT TIPU
Sultan and his spirited peasant population: Glimpses from an organic narrative
My recent visit to Kaliganj of Jhenaidah – an agriculturally developed area, provided a reason for me to recognize once again the holistic life Sultan had envisaged within the context of Read
writes SYED GOLAM DASTAGIR
cross - section
The Real, Reality and Representation
The 'real' in everyday usage denotes 'actually existing and happening and not imagined or pretended' (OED). It is in this sense that the 'real' denotes phenomenon perceived as an elemental Read
writes SYED JAMIL AHMED
artist writes
Kazi Hasan Habib
An artist's quest is for unravelling the truth which usually remains un-manifested, as it lies beyond what is visible in every-day life. What we fail to notice through our biological Read
imprint
Excursion into a liminal space: Habib's attempt at naturalization through art
The cosmology of representation/presentation, buying/selling and even categorizing/archiving that modern living has brought into being are not the only backdrop against which artists determine their position and modulate their voice Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
encounter
The Hysterically Fabulous History of Now: Erratic Discoursing with Anne Garde and Laure Vernièr
Anne Garde is a Paris-based, internationally renowned photographer of industrial sites and architectonic structures whose 'Indian palaces,' 'Lido,' 'Niemeyer,' 'Bordeaux,' 'Paris Angkor Submarine Base' etc. are seminal projects that have Read
exposure
Abu Naser Robii: Personal involvement, impersonal act
Mostly interested in Chinese Zen and Indian mythology as well as Islamic and Christian lore with spiritual implications, Abu Naser Robii has enabled the language of the performance art to Read
locational
'People without history are the History': Zhuang Hui and Dan'er as memorizers
As I write this essay, the global conference on climate change is on in Copenhagen, and the leaders of the most powerful countries of the world are discussing the importance Read
writes MONICA DEMATTE
reading room
BK Jahangir on Sultan: Looking through a pair of modernist goggles
Burhanuddin Khan Jahangir, aka BK Jahangir, accepts 'modernism' as the central concept through which to read Sultan and his idiom. Modernism appears in two categories in this rather thin 96 page Read
close look
Unpeopled and formal: Ghost City in Bangladeshi paintings
Roaming around Dhaka one cannot but notice the endless series of billboards vying for attention. Among them there are many put up by property developers; they are massive, they are Read
writes MANOSH CHOWDHURY
depart file
An alternative protocol: Seiji Shimoda visits Bangladesh
'Our lifestyle is continuously pushing us farther away from nature and the body,' laments Seiji Shimoda, in a write-up, where he enshrines his emotions following his recent visit to Bangladesh. Read
navigator
Kazi Ghiyasuddin's recent solo: 'Self' as artist, separated from 'Other-as-people'
Kazi Ghiyasuddin is an artist of clichéd, texturally defined abstraction. Abstraction as a language hasn't had the chance to evolve out of the eco-culture of Bangladesh, as it has Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN
Chaos Fetish: Javed Jalil's stirred-up world
One minute Javed Jalil's work seems to appeal to the unhappy state of our existence, and the next minute it assails us with its formal chaos to trigger an emotional Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
The muted/mutated concept of oneness : Rokeya Sultana's revised 1st person expressivity
Brandishing the elemental to inaugurate the natural in human is one way of staving off the dominance of the market-driven, entrepreneurially fired-up milieu of our time where the (money) wise Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
Nature cultivated in solitude: Rashid Amin keeps things close to dust and debris
When artists are tempted to initiate a back-to-basics move, it may either mean the repositioning of the agent – which is the artist – and the reorganizing of the imperatives of the Read
Tautology of navel gazing: Mohammed Fokhrul Islam in focus
Different valences of a more asinine theory advanced during the 90's mostly jawed off by Salim Al-Deen, Mohammad Rafique et al and, of course, passively received, in bovine obedience, by Read
writes EBADUR RAHMAN
A Close Encounter with the Predictable
Symptoms of Anti-Eurocentric artistic articulation, from a 'traditional' Bengali position, are mostly produced and programmed to become 'Othered” by the West or the centers to condition certain cultural merchandise from Read
writes EBADUR RAHMAN
terra - firma
Retracing the history of pat-chitra in Bangladesh
History tells us that, since the second decade of the last century a large number of folklorists and experts have traversed the rural frontiers of Bangladesh and have been able Read
writes NISAR HOSSAIN
panorama
CRAC International Art Camp in Kushtia
The recent art camp organized by Centre for Research on Art and Culture (CRAC) saw a definite boost in enthusiasm among the participants and the locals alike. With the Village Read
Madhumati Art Camp 2010: a convergence of artists from two Bengals
A four-day-long art camp organized by Bengal Foundation and participated by artists from the West Bengal, India, and Bangladesh set the backdrop for a four-day sojourn spent in the midst Read
subject/predicate
Kaal, Kaali / eternity, Identity
Depart: The pre-Boidic (Vedic)-era deity Kaali problamitizes the whole spectrum of modernist narratives when it reappears as a living goddess at the end of the eighteenth century as a naked Read
