This is not intended to be a critique of Kalidas Karmakar’s works or of the artist himself. I thought it more appropriate rather to write about impressions because Kalidas connects in an unusually intense manner. Elements in his work and the nuances that they construct take us back to time immemorial and rouse passions that are innate, yet indescribable. Kalidas Karmakar is essentially an artist of primordial passions. That is not to say however that Kalidas is archaic or exotic in the static sense. Kalidas is very much a modern artist – tremendously vital, tremendously versatile, familiar with modern trends and at home with modern techniques. The contemporary human situation is an essential part of his inspiration.
Kalidas Karmakar went to art school in the late 1960s and began his journey as an artist in the 1970s. Over
the years, he has continued to develop his technical moorings at home and abroad. In Poland, he worked on painting and print making; in France on colour viscosity
for his graphic prints; in Japan he worked
with washi paper art and was initiated
into wood block print making; he trained in
sculpture in India.
His works show strong control over both lines and colours. His lines respond easily to his imaginations and bring forth expressions at once lyrical and strong; they delineate a complex matrix that demands to be unravelled. He has an equal hold on the colours that he uses, sometimes bold, sometimes subdued half-tones; sometimes self defining, sometimes embellishing the intricate linear layout. His use of ‘non-art’ material enhances the solidity of his works. Whether it is metal collage, washi paper art, prints or any range of mixed media work, Kalidas infuses a diction, a nuance, and finesse all his own.
Kalidas’ works are in essence about people, and his interest in the human situation is not just aesthetic, but spiritual. His mundane materials and elementary methods correspond close to all ‘religious’ art. His works internalise a sense of devotion, reverence and ritual, often to an assumed if unnamed ideal. They are, however about no recognised superior being, not expressly about the service and adoration of a god as expressed in some forms of worship.
Kalidas Karmakar’s generation of artists, despite the inspiration they drew from the masters who pioneered the modern art movement in Bangladesh after the partition of 1947, is nonetheless distinctive on several counts. Exposure to the bigger world of art, both in the West and the East, added to their repertoire new trends, techniques and interesting prospects for fusion. The 1960s brought sharper focus to the emerging sense of nationhood among Bangalees, which in turn had a strong influence on the creative genius of this land. The events leading to the War of Liberation and the war itself saw the nation come together and grow in self-esteem and conviction, in a clear assertion of identity; in revolt, to stand up for their rights. 1971 was a living epic for the people of this land. Kalidas Karmakar, like other painters of his generation drew inspiration from the tide of creativity that this momentous experience opened up. Artists who lived through this experience endeavoured to reconnect with traditional roots and symbols and a rediscovery of traditional visual arts genres. Unlike their immediate predecessors, they did not confine themselves to only the abstract, but brought elements of the figurative in experimental works that aimed at bridging the contemporary with the traditional.
Kalidas Karmakar is one of our most expressive artists. He is today perhaps the most widely exhibited artist of Bangladesh. Intensely emotive, his works connect with an essence that is primordial, they construct a world of symbolism, expressions and half expressions that have engendered the Indic, and more specifically, the Bangalee mind. Emotive, because they explore the full range of human experience, reverence, beatitude, mirth, pathos, defiance and irrelevance. Kalidas Karmakar’s works are a celebration of life, and of the human spirit.
— Mijarul Quayes