First Solo Paintings Exhibition, 2001, Reviews
My Words
I spent my childhood in the city of Jessore. The Magic of art touched me first while living in this city. Intimate moments with S.M. Sultan paved the way to my present career as an artist.
When I entered the Institute of Fine Arts in Dhaka, I was much more interested in life, nature and surroundings than the regular routine work of the academy. So, I started to feel more attracted to the outdoor scenario. This made me start painting my surroundings; by giving importance to my personal feeling.
I closely observed the impressionist and post-impressionist paintings in the Institute
library. Besides our contemporary artists I also tried to follow the Fauvist and Cubist works
as a tool to exploit them to express my personal feelings. But beyond all these, I always
tried to maintain my individuality.
In this exhibition the major presentations are the selected paintings from my M.FA. (Ist part) class works. Within the framework of the syllabus I tried to represent myself. The subject matters here are represented as two-dimensional. Red, blue and yellow dominate in the landscapes; rest of the paintings are basically arrangements of red, yellow and mixed blue. I tried my best to present my personal life and surroundings in symbolic forms. Beside oil and canvas I also used acrylics, enamel color and paper.
To give an impression of the continuation of my recent thoughts, a selected portion of my
previous works and studies are also hanged in the Gallery. Most of these studies were
done at my studio as memory drawings just after some direct model drawing.
It will be of immense satisfaction to me if the works can give pleasure to the audience. All the critiques will be the guideline to my journey in the world of art
With Thanks Tanvirul Islam Mithu
Art is sometimes a journey from physical reality towards a realm of one’s own. Whatever the means by which one achieves the end result, through which the creator of that reality asserts his or her own sensibilities and reveal esoteric thoughts, it is a new reality of an intimate nature. Tanvirul Islam Mithu’s art is perched between these two ends.
He is still standing on the threshold of his career, and is grappling with problems of manipulation of art elements. While engaged in drawing the visual equation, he has also shown resolve and the ability to make use of the immediate realities, among which he lives and works. The physical environment is his vehicle. His deftness in transforming humans, trees, household items, furniture and paraphernalia found in an art studio into colourful compositions is evident in his paintings. The forms that defy their three- dimensional appearance crowed his works and are used to strike a compositional balance. That is why his art seems like an exploration into spatial arrangements. But the elements, however reduced in terms of expression, are not drastically abstracted from their respective environment. As such, Mithu’s emphasis, it seems, is not only on formal display of things but also on time and space of which they are an integral part.
Because of his affinity for primary colours he can be likened to the fauvists. Beauty and harmony of forms also play their roles in his domain, though most of his human figures take on an expressionist appearance. After getting an eyeful of the creative output of this young man one can only hope that the journey that he started from Norail with the blessings from the maestro of fringe art like S. M. Sultan will lead to an artistic maturity of an unusual kind that results from a comfortable coupling of accomplished draughtsmanship and true vision.
Mustafa Zaman
