This is the first solo exhibition in Bangladesh of works by the artist Safiuddin Ahmed (b 1922), and is consequently a historic landmark in our art world. The multi-dimensional significance of this exhibition will become apparent if we recall a few simple facts. One of the outstanding pioneers of our art world, Safiuddin Ahmed has turned eighty-six. 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. Consequently his first solo at home 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 this 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. Among the drawings produced in 1959, ‘Nude Study-3’ depicts a semi-recumbent figure, ‘Nude Study-5’ shows a figure sitting on the edge of a bed with one foot on the floor and the other on a chair, ‘Nude Study-4’ shows a figure with splayed legs: the varied postures have been drawn with great skill. ‘Study-2’ shows a fine sense of proportion and balance, while ‘Study-1’ vividly captures the liveliness of the model’s hands.
After the artist’s return from London, i.e., from 1960, his drawings evince a new tendency. Using charcoal, crayons and carbon pencils, the drawings now acquire a new harmony through the use of tonal values. In the drawings from 1960-68, the daily life of the struggling masses becomes a major subject of the drawings. Through the use of colour, these drawings on flat surfaces engagingly experiment with chiaroscuro. ‘Printing Press’ perfectly illustrates these qualities. These drawings are remarkable for their use of tonal variations.
The seventies and eighties produced work in the same vein. Among new subjects are boats, the sunflower, floods, chicken coops, etc. Breaking up forms becomes an important aspect of drawings, notably in ‘Sunflower 1 and 2’. Bullocks working oil presses, first drawn in the sixties, now recur, with greater attention to the details of the bullocks and the oil press. In this phase the artist shows a tendency to experiment seriously with the varied potential of line drawing. In ‘Remembering Ekushey’, he works with charcoal, crayons and carbon pencil on two different impressions of a print of the same title to create two very different line drawings; these may be dubbed ‘mixed-media line drawings’. Numerous eyes are placed around a skull; they are filled with anguished tears and reflect profound love for the homeland and the mother tongue. In ‘Remembering Ekushey-1’ the thoughts, feelings and anguish are turned inward, whereas in ‘Remembering Ekushey-2’ they are turned outwards. By concealing some images in the print, drawing new images over them, and exploiting underlying tonalities, these works acquire an appeal that is quite distinctive.
Safiuddin Ahmed broke new ground in the line drawings of the nineties. From 1992 to 1995 he experimented exclusively with black. He has been attracted to the use of black since his student days. Black is the most powerful colour to him. An artist who can use black with mastery can easily handle any other colour. During his teachership training in Kolkata he used to visit Sealdah station at night to study ways of depicting nocturnal shades. During his student days in London as well his mastery over black and white drawings won him praise from his instructors. Black of course is a natural attribute of prints. But Ahmed was not satisfied with that alone. It was in the nineties that he succeeded in exploiting the potential of black in line drawings to the full. In the works of this period, the black contrasts with a varied luminosity. These drawings also demonstrate extraordinary compositional skill. Most of these drawings are bounded by a thick black line, and use charcoal crayons along with Chinese ink and watercolour. In many the artist plays around charmingly with foliage and floral forms. At times the forms become unidentifiable, abstract. We notice a resurgence of images first used in prints in the fifties. Together with those images he has also used the lines found in etchings. The motifs of water, boats and fish are depicted in the same manner. Ahmed’s aim was to transfer to line drawings the qualities found in other mediums, and he admirably realized that aim. Does the artist’s devotion to black have roots in his own life of struggle? Or is it a simple matter of taste? The artist himself cannot give an answer. We surmise that since luminosity exists in contradistinction to black, it is the quest for luminosity that has drawn the artist to the uses of black. Another reason is that mastery over black is hard to attain, and being adventurous in creative matters Ahmed took up the exploration of black as a challenge.
From the nineties the artist has been occupied in other kinds of experimentation as well. He has tried to transfer the various qualities of prints and oil paintings to line drawings. He has enriched his drawings by incorporating the fine lines characteristic of etchings, the thick broken lines of engravings, the poetic flourishes of dry point, the delicate grain of aquatint the many layered texture of oils, together with the direct use of watercolour. Through these very modern experiments Ahmed’s mixed-media line drawings have achieved conspicuous success. Their relevance to our times may be brought out through a brief analysis of some of them. In an extraordinary work, ‘Flood: The Joy and Sorrow of Bangladesh’ (1994), he has incorporated the qualities of murals. As in a mural this drawing presents varied scenes that evoke a nation’s ethos. In ‘Leafless Trees’ (2004), the desolation after a cyclone is evoked through the spongy, tender smoothness one finds in aquatint. The entire picture is balanced on a white foreground. The lines are swift and expressive, and geometric forms have been incorporated to balance the composition. ‘Fish and Net’ (2005) also incorporates the same qualities of aquatint. The ground and the images of water and fish are tonally similar, differentiated only by white patches. The vertical depiction of the fish suggests great kinetic energy. The idealized portrayal of fish is eye-catching. The three fish are arranged in a geometrically balanced composition. ‘Tree-4’ (2004) is concerned primarily with composition. The tree is placed against the light and to balance the composition the right side of the tree is entirely black. Light falls on the lower part of the trunk, while the foliage is dark. The composition is manipulated to create a balance between light and darkness.
Safiuddin Ahmed is always engaged in experimentation. He is always trying to transcend himself, and that is why he has not remained static. His line drawings best exemplify his innovativeness and his continuing effort to keep turning new corners. These are among his most variegated and aesthetically satisfying works. Artists, critics and art connoisseurs will always find in these something to ponder and study and enjoy.

Syed Azizul Haque