Rokeya Sultana’s recent works are reminiscent of Tagore’s Odhora madhuri dhorechhi chhando bandhone ( I have captured this unearthly beauty in the rhymes and meters). Her works not only appeal to the eyes but also touch a chord in our hearts.

We find new dimensions added to Rokeya Sultana’s repertoire in her Odhorar Shapna Katha series. Here poetry and intellect are blended brilliantly and expand the scope of our experience. There was a time when the main feature of her works centered on the yearning and pathos of a woman’s existence. Since then, her works have evolved into more matured and more diverse territory. This current exhibition is a testimony to the distinctive construct she brings to the depiction of happenings around her. What do these represent? wisdom? emotion?

Rokeya Sultana has been able to create a new language, working with colours, lines and figurative images. Her works are distinctive for aesthetic balance and the depiction of the existential crisis of women. In the 1990s, her works addressed subjects centering on the pathos, desires, fantasy and dreams of women, on everyday experience such as the bus ride to drop her daughter to school or a walk under the full moon with her daughter. There is an element of the feminist that has gradually evolved in much of her work, whether in print, or tempera, oil or plain drawings. As early as her solo in 1986, her potential was easily discernible. She has continued her endeavors uninterruptedly to give expression to her views and perspectives. There is a dispassionate introvertedness in her psyche. She feels that through introspection one discovers cosmic beauty and the universal balance. This aspiration drives her on her creative pursuit. And the fruits of her creativity represent a fascinating diversity of themes.

We can easily identify three phases in Rokeya’s work. First after her sojourn in Shantiniketan she concentrated on graphics, bringing out many faceted aspects of everyday experience. One is specially impressed by her capacity to look at life from a multiplicity of perspectives. She also exhibited a fascinating competence in figurative images. Figures were at times simple and lyrical and at times fired by imagination.

In her second phase, we find a preponderance of nature. She has internalized the inner essence of nature in many of her works, sometimes in large canvasses, sometimes in smaller works. What is specially noteworthy, is how she brings in a capacity to feel and respond to this beauty of nature in her works. Some of her brilliant works pose fundamental questions. She has done several works in the “earth, water, air” series. One of her paintings in this series was awarded at the Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh. In her dispassionate manner, almost characteristic of Jibananada’s melancholia, she creates an element of mystery in her treatment of the environment. She captures both the beauty of nature and also how it is threatened. In a way, the series is something of a report. Yellow and blue colours flow, and the lines take on a fast moving pace. Water and earth come together in a close embrace. The texture of the colours also speak of this duality; and the flowers and the leaves, every thing becomes meaningful.

In her third phase, Rokeya Sultana appears to be more consolidated. She has depicted the inner bonds between man and woman, successfully presenting it in its multiple dimensions. Beyond this, she has with great tenderness depicted the yearning for life, specially of women, their desires and aspirations. Her emotive elan connects with the romantic and the human; indeed, there is an element of rebellion in her depiction. She adds an element of sexuality and mystery in the romantic. She successfully establishes that human relations and the human conscience are multi layered.

One is quite impressed by the courage that the artist has shown in this series. She has broken taboos, challenged conventions and used artistic ambivalence to depict the crisis of existence and the march towards women’s liberation. There are dreams that speak of people around you, of people close to you. There is an interesting story telling construct in her style. This series is a representation of human sensibility. The value these painting add to the collective psyche and experience comes through in the forms, and colours one after another. Do they belong to another world? Are they unfamiliar? Perhaps not. That is where lies Rokeya’s brilliance.

Mahmud Al Zaman