editor’s note
Of trend and culture-specificity
We live in an exceedingly self-conscious age; yet there are 'unknowing demonstrations' of social relations in many an aspect of today's cultural productions and the narratives that give them their Read
newsscape
Gonochitro: the aesthetics of indictment
With the all-out cooperation from Dhaka Art Center (DAC), Bangladesh Sammilito Sangskritic Jote, a cultural platform of the progressives, devised an aesthetic intervention tapping the talents of four mainstream artists. Read
Raza: a contemporary artist with a sense of Indianness
To determine a new position to express Indianness, a band of young painters founded The Progressive Artist's Group in Mumbai, just after the independence in 1947. It survived only near about Read
writes SOUGATA CHATTOPADHYAY
Workshop on sandtoning at Dhaka Art Center
The five-day workshop on 'Sandtoning', a technique that achieves light and shadow using blackened sand, conducted by artist Azyz Sharafy, an associate professor of Washburn University's art department, was a Read
Bengal gallery kick-starts: 10th anniversary Celebration
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts (BGFA) celebrates 10 years in operation, launches a year-long programme with a series of exhibitions entitled 'Srijoney o Shikorey', or 'Rooted Creativity', to showcase works of Read
Shovon Shome: through the prism of art history
Shovon Shome has passed away in June 8 at the age of 78 (1932- 2010), leaving behind a singularly riveting wealth of art criticism which is impersonal and influential in the context of both Bangladesh and West Bengal, the former his birth place and the Read
writes SYED AZIZUL HAQUE
Visions remapped: Homage to Ramlal Dhar
Ramlal Dhar's last body of work comprises visions which are at once filled to the brim with life and only too conscious of death: the traditional and the contemporary are Read
writes ANIRUDH CHARI
features
Examining Interventionist Theatre in a Multi-Axial World of Transience: An Essay in Refusal
Intervention', a highly charged term, is not unproblematic and readily intelligible. Consider the semantic field – the three 'meanings' that Oxford English Dictionary (OED) offers to the term. Firstly, intervention is Read
writes SYED JAMIL AHMED
New flashpoints in the continuous drama of brief encounters with the Homo Incognitus
My work is about provisionality of the moment, artist William Kentrige had once said to have remarked. Though this pronouncement surely may perturb many a mind with an artistic bend, especially in this region, as most hold complacently on to the notion Read
writes MUSTAFA ZAMAN
Beyond Modernism– En Route to Postmodernism in Kolkata
The years immediately preceding independence and the impending partition of Bengal, were years of great turmoil, not just for the world at large, but for the city of Calcutta in Read
17th Young Artist's Exhibition at a glance: The Hole in the Structure of Praxis
The bud wishes to bloom but shrinks back,' – I have no choice but to draw on the lyrics of Rabindranath Tagore to define the artworks presented in this show. The Read
writes SAKHAWAT TIPU
Focusing on Location Specific Realities : Writing art history from below
Till now, the written history of Bangladeshi art has been quite simple – linear and primarily institutionalized. Following the partition of 1947, several Muslim artists including Zainul Abedin who had been schooled Read
artist writes
TAYEBA BEGUM LIPI: Catacomb of life
We have been passing through our lives like the waves of water. We come to this earth and become a part of the play, on a huge podium; we pass Read
exposure
The Eclectic art of Amirul Momenin Chowdhury
It was in the early 1990s that Amirul Momenin Chowdhury shifted his gaze to the sociopolitical realities of this region, and in effect, coded his ambitiously large woodcut prints with Read
encounter
Negotiating Modernism in Bengal
Ebadur Rahman: In the beginning, right off, I am going to take issue with something you said yesterday. You were saying something to the extent that, Zainul Abedin is to Read
close look
fusion of archetypal image and archaic form: The art of Rabin Mondal
Even though the 'simplicity' of primitive African art is a myth as it is led by stern aesthetic conventions, it served as an effective cannonball to strike at the established Read
Gain at Guimet
Regardless of his medium, material, message, manner or movement, an artist of any worth is always an avant-garde, since he can foresee the future and transcribe it into his work. Read
imprint
The unbearable lightness of the delirious 'Near Documentary'
Recent exhibitions in Dhaka showcased works from photographers – Raghu Rai, Salgado, Shahidul Alam, Anwar Hossain etc – held in colossal esteem by Dhakaite shutterbugs and, at the risk of sounding too Read
writes EBADUR RAHAMAN
navigator
Decoding the contours and colours of Anukul's retro-figuration
Anukul's figuration precludes the social from the visual. His personalized figures are constructed in a manner as if they are drawn from some forgotten glyphs which still hold some potentials Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN with DEPART DESK
Shades without 'First Being': Object of mediation in Hamiduzzaman's recent works
In his seminal books 'A Treatise of Human Nature' and 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding' David Hume looks into how human mind perceives reality; accordingly he formulates: 'all perceptions of Read
writes SHAHMAN MOISHAN
Material authenticity: Niamul Bari's way of working through negation
When art veers towards artistry, it does so to please the crowd. But, when it stays clear out of such known and easy-to-reach destination, it goes beyond the location of Read
writes GOLAM MORTUJA
Medium to medium, style to style: A glimpse into Sigmar Polke's plucky sensibility
One might be tempted to say that Sigmar Polke's work will inevitably always be judged in the shadow of Gerhard Richter's post-modern Germany – one where the Wall existed not simply Read
writes NADER RAHMAN
Roots into the recent modernist past: Bengal gallery's 10th anniversary celebration of Bangladeshi artists
Ameditation on mainstream art scene and the scene-stars: Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts' (BGFA) haphazard cluster of exhibitions under the rubric 'Rooted Creativity', organized mostly to celebrate their 10th anniversary, Read
panorama
2nd Porapara Performance Art Workshop
Conducted by the Japanese artist, Seiji Shimoda, also Director of NIPAF, an organization out to promote performance art across the globe, 2nd Porapara Performance Art Workshop 2010, March 4 to 7, at Shilpakala Read
Consecutive Britto workshops among adibaashi people
Under the rubric 'Prantiker Prakritajan', which translates as The Archaic Man from the Margins, Britto Art Trust instituted a series of art workshops centered on the theme of collaboration between Read
