The Limitless Luminosity of Lines

Syed Azizul Haque

The first solo exhibition in Bangladesh of works by the artist Safiuddin Ahmed (b 1922), held in June 2008, is consequently a historic landmark in our art world. The multi-dimensional significance of this exhibition becomes apparent if we recall a few simple facts. One of the outstanding pioneers of our art world, Safiuddin Ahmed turned eighty-six in 2008. He has been engaged in his vocation without a break for the last seventy years. His constant preoccupation with art has set a unique example for other Bangladeshi artists. In all these years he has participated in numerous group shows, but hitherto he has had only one solo show, in 1959 in London and one in 2008, in Bangladesh. Consequently this third solo at his birthplace, Kolkata, is bound to generate great interest among art lovers. Despite his consummate mastery of graphics and oil painting, the artist has decided to display only drawings, 86 in all, chosen by himself. The reason is that the essential spirit of his artistic self is located in his drawings. Through concentrated attention he has transformed each of these into a complete work of art. Besides, it cannot be gainsaid that an artist’s innate power and creative potential is best reflected in his drawings.
Safiuddin studied at the Calcutta Govt. Art School (1936-42), and also completed his teacher’s training course there (1944-46). Among his teachers were Mukul De, Basantakumar Ganguly, Ramendranath Chakravarty, Atul Bose, Prahlad Karmakar, Rissen Mitra, Abdul Moin. On the school’s blackboards he mastered the techniques of free-hand drawing. Ever since he has been perfecting these through continuous practice. Even in his present debilitated state he has not ceased working. The most recent drawing in the exhibition was done last year. In the chaotic aftermath of Partition, when Safiuddin moved to Dhaka, nearly all his line drawings were lost. But one at least wasn’t, and is on display in this show, so viewers will be able to study the artist’s evolution over seven decades.
Safiuddin’s drawings are so variegated in their subject matter and technique that one who enters their world is likely to be overwhelmed. His lines are wonderfully varied, and can be delicate, firm, lively and charged with feeling, gently curved or squiggly, thin and fine, thick and bold, swift and vibrant, lean and sharp, depending on aesthetic need. That the different kinds of line can convey a different mood is well illustrated by Safiuddin Ahmed’s drawings in this exhibition. These drawings are not confined within lines; that is to say, they are not distinctive because of the use of outline alone. Safiuddin Ahmed has been inspired by the modern elaboration of the concept of line drawing, giving it the status of a fully-fledged art work. Thanks to this modern influence his work as a draughtsman has been enriched by the incorporation of tonal drawing, mixed-media drawing, mural drawing, etc. Underlying his line drawings there may be a varied, colourful layer created with the help of charcoal crayons, or tonal variations. He can introduce compositional variations, varied chiaroscuro and altered perspectives. In mixed-media line drawings he sometimes adds a wash of watercolour; sometimes he uses charcoal crayons to alter the formal character of a graphic print, thereby destroying an image that he himself has created. Taking a cue from murals he produces line drawings carefully composed of fragmented sections, each with a different use of perspective. The subjects of his line drawings clearly evince an interest in existential realities and also a deep love for his homeland. His sympathetic gaze takes in natural calamities like cyclones and floods, the pathos of a corpse floating in flood water, flood-affected villagers seeking refuge in cities, etc. Various subjects drawn from common life have been depicted in his line drawings/ activities like catching fish, winnowing rice, towing a boat, tamping down the mortar on a roof; bullocks operating an oil press; a printing press; boats, fish, fishing nets, trees, etc.; professional types like vendors of cloth, sherbet, fruit, peanuts, balloons, etc. The artist has encountered these varied aspects of life in the quotidian sphere and then captured their aesthetic essence in line drawings.
Some of Safiuddin Ahmed’s line drawings were produced as cartoons for prints or oil paintings, but the overwhelming number of them were produced as finished art works. There is a dry point print that is based on his pen and ink line drawing ‘Views of Santiniketan’ (1945). The artist gives a realistic treatment of the palm-lined mud track under an open sky, with pedestrians and bullock carts in motion. He gives a vibrant image of life amidst the vastness of nature with consummate mastery over composition and the subtleties of drawing.
In a series of drawings in pen and ink or brush, produced in 1950, the artist renders his impressions of various aspects of life in East Bengal, which he was seeing with fresh eyes: ‘Towing-1’, ‘Fishing’, ‘A Couple’ and ‘Labourers with a Fiddler on the Roof’. In the first three, made as layouts for woodcuts, there is rich decorativeness. Apart from the fourth drawing, all the others depict people at work; the bent postures are drawn with consummate mastery. In the pen and brush drawings ‘Towing-2’ and ‘Towing-3’ (1951), the distinctive postures of the figures are eye-catching. In ‘Towing-3’, the differences in the sizes of the figures make the use of perspective prominent, and the figures themselves reflect the forms of folk art.
Some of the nude life drawings from the artist’s student days at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London (1957-59) are on display at this show. These carbon and lead pencil drawings use line alone and sensitively capture the distinctiveness of the human posture, with each curve and angle given due attention. The artist has been careful to preserve the proportions of the different parts of the body, and to accurately depict the face and the body’s movements and inner tension. ‘Nude Study-1’ (1957) exploits fine lines to perfection, showing a seated figure with one leg stretched out and the other folded. In ‘Nude Study-2’ (1958), one leg is folded at the knee and placed on the other thigh, while a bent head completes the composition to suggest strength and movement.

Date: 23/03/2009 – 04/04/2009
Venue: RABINDRANATH TAGORE CENTRE, Kolkata
Entry condition: open to all