Kalidas Karmakar

INTERVIEW

Kalidas Karmakar, 71, is an internationally reputed painter and printmaker. He has numerous national and international awards and done many exhibitions at home and abroad. The artist recently came to Bangladesh from the USA to receive the Shilpakala Padak (award) for fine arts. In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Independent, he shared his thoughts about his works and the contemporary art scene in our country.

Please tell us about the contemporary art scene in Bangladesh.

Contemporary art in Bangladesh started after independence from Britain. Our Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Shilpa Guru Quamrul Hassan, and Shilpa Guru Safiuddin Ahmed, Anwarul Huq, Khawaja Shafique Ahmed and Habibur Rahman, they all came from the Government School of Art in Kolkata, the oldest art school in the Indian subcontinent. After independence in 1947, when East Pakistan formed, they returned to their homeland and set up an art school, named Government Institute of Arts and Crafts, in just one room on Jonson Road in Old Dhaka. After 60 years or so, almost every district in the country now has at least one art college or school, both private and  government. Then we have hundreds of working artists at home and abroad. Our art has developed tremendously over the past 60 years, especially in the last 20 years. Our younger generation of artists are working with different mediums and exploring. They exhibit their works internationally, in a personal capacity or with help from the government.  They then return home and do their own artwork and enrich the art field of Bangladesh.

You see today, due to the internet, you can see any museum, any art gallery, and any artist’s works on your tab or smartphone or computer. It is one side that is wonderful because the whole world is in your hands. But in the creative field, it also has a negative side. An artist has to work and get inspiration from his own soil, from his own culture, and from his own heritage. Bangladesh has a Bengali culture which is many centuries old. We always say ‘hajar bochhorer bangalir itihash’ (thousand-year history of Bengal). That is wrong. It is not a thousand years, but a couple of thousand years. Our delta land is made up of alluvial soil. The Ganges and Jamuna rivers flow through it. We have no mountains or stone, so our architectural heritage has been ruined, through water or floods. But our culture is very old. Any artist should be globalised in their thinking. But their subject and conviction, their motif, should be their own soil and culture. Our Language Movement, our democratic movement, our liberation in 1971 _ have great impact not only on our poets or writers, but also our painters. Our flood also inspired Zainul Abedin to do the Monpura painting.

On August 15, 1975, Father of Our Nation was killed with his family in a brutal way. That also influenced many artists. After 1975, it was very difficult to utter the name of Bangabandhu. But I painted. One of my paintings is called ‘Nihoto surjo mukhi’ (Killed Sunflower), I pasted a real bullet on this painting. I don't know where it is now. I have a copy of its image, but not the original painting. I painted another painting called Rahu. In the night, ‘rahu grostho’, a disoriented culprit came and killed all four national leaders in jail (on November 3, 1975). I created a rahu with a skull. Fortunately, that painting is still in Bangladesh in the personal collection of Ali Zaker, a renowned theatre personality.

Artists must convey their inner feeling, convey their agony. Love and pleasure cannot create art. Pleasure makes you sleepy. You need agony. Any kind of agony creates a kind of reaction in your mind that you want to forget, you want to write, paint, recite or sing to overcome that agony. The art that an artist produces is just for self, not for others.  

Could you tell us something about your first solo exhibition?

I started my artistic career professionally after I returned to Bangladesh after our liberation in 1971. My first solo exhibition was held at Shilpakala Academy in 1976. It was the biggest solo exhibition at the time. Then, I exhibited 121 works, using different mediums. I used things like wood, metal, cement, brass, copper, and many junk materials, I worked on wood and created some metal collages. And in the beginning, my work was not accepted by art critics or artists in this country.

I remember Bangladesh held its first national art exhibition in 1975. There, I submitted one of my metal collage works, named Communism. At first, it was rejected. But later, it was exhibited. After the opening, many leftist leaders came to me and asked why I called it Communism. Because communism is like a factory, communism is not a soothing thing, you created a face which looks very ugly and unhappy, communists are not unhappy, explain it to us, they said. I was very young at that time. I told them that you see, I have never been to a communist country. But what I heard is that the system can fulfil three basic needs _ food, healthcare and education. But the system cannot give freedom to your soul, to express yourself. So, I believe this system will disappear because it will not give you freedom. That is conveyed through this painting. In 1975, I said that. I am not a philosopher. I am not a fortune-teller, but I told them that. What do we see in the world today? Communism is finished.

I believe human beings need freedom. They need freedom of expression. Whether they have a full stomach or stay hungry. Even a hungry person, if you give him a song, he will feel good. Stomach is empty, but if they listen to some music, they feel good. So, the mind is most important.

That painting still exists. I am very happy that my first work of metal collage is in the collection of National Art Gallery.

Tell us about the new forms of art you introduced in Bangladesh.

I tried to introduce many mediums in this country. Without knowing it was new. Akku Chowdhury ran a gallery called La Galerie on top of an ice cream shop in Banani. Using (motorcar) junk parts that I bought from Dholaikhal, I set up these installations in the middle of an exhibition. They represented the result after the Pakistan army burned the houses. So, the book is burning, doll is burning, clothes are burning, furniture is burning. I tried to create that atmosphere as a kind of installation art. That was the first in this country.

But you know installation art is not a new thing. When we take a corpse to the cremation ground and make a pyre, that is also installation. That is a part of our life. We never say it is art.

Tell us about your performance art.

I started performance art for the first time in the Sundarbans. In early 1980s, using mud and dyes on my body, I performed at Kotka, also at Rashmela on Dublar Char. I performed in the open air, more than 5,000 people enjoyed the mud and colours. I found a singer with a dotara (a folk musical instrument with two strings). Then a few students from Khulna Art College joined me. They asked what I was doing. I said look _ think about Pakistani soldiers fighting with Muktijodhhas (freedom fighters). Some were injured some received bullets, some were crawling through the mud. I made a flag circle with fire coming up, people played music all around, that was performance art. We all performed together.

Shilpakala Academy arranged a performance art festival last April. They honoured me with life-time achievement award because they thought I started this. But performance art is nothing new in this country. We have a century-old history of performance art. We have social performance art called chorok puja, you go to Shiva temple and offer water and milk at night, that is a ritual performance. During Muharram, they bite themselves and cry ‘hai Hasan, hai Hossain’, that is performance. The West took the essence from the East and called it a new kind of art. No! Performance art belongs to our society. Not in the West, not in America, not France.

So, in performance art, installation art, assembling art, everything belongs to our soil, our country. These are not coming from the West. They (western countries) have means, they have money, they have the media. They have exhibitions, they say this is something new.

How would you compare Bangladeshi art to international art?

Now many young artists are doing many beautiful works in this country. The younger generation is doing much better.

We have all, but we don't project them, that is sad. We need more promotion, Bangladesh’s young generation art is parallel to the art of any developed county's, like France, German, Japan, Korea. In some instance, it is better, but we don't have the promotion. We need our government, our Shilpakala Academy, to consider this, to exhibit Bangladeshi art in foreign countries. There are many art fairs around the world, like Sydney art fair, Chicago art fair, Oslo art fair, Korea art fair, German art fair,  Miami art fair, Zurich art fair. So, we need to focus our younger generation’s art at all these art fairs, because buyers come there from around the world,

You know, at Miami art fair’s opening day, 1,200 private collectors called to buy. Only Cosmos Art Gallery took part in the Miami art fair a few years back in a private capacity.

Tell us about the new trends in Bangladesh art.

Now, printmaking is a strong movement in Bangladesh. I helped set up Cosmos Atelier 71 printmaking studio. This is the biggest studio not only in Bangladesh, but in whole Asia. The etching machine made in Dhaka by Sadek Hossain from Jessore is the best etching press now.

And Cosmos Atelier 71 has great contribution in developing the younger generation of artists. At this year’s national art exhibition, four out of 10 young artists went to Atelier 71.

That means it has the atmosphere. Because an artist doesn't need good food, an artist needs a pleasant, healthy working atmosphere, where he or she can explore his or her emotions about painting, without any fear, without any interruptions, and free expression. They need a kind of place where nobody interferes with you. Cosmos doesn't interfere; Atelier 71 is a free place for all younger artists.

Now we have many good studios, many individual artists have individual machines.

I believe that in Bangladesh, we are developing economically, our contemporary art is developing faster than any economic development.

And of any creative medium, literature, poetry, drama, music, whatever,  fine arts can bring more international recognition for Bangladesh.

So, the government should realise this reality and promote more contemporary artists at home and abroad. And I want to say one thing, Bangladesh badly needs a modern art museum in Dhaka city where works from Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan to younger artists can be displayed permanently and people of Bangladesh, students, foreign delegates can come to see them.

The other day, I was given Shilpakala Padak by President Hamid. I told the honourable president that when you go to Paris, you see Louvre Museum, when you go to New York, you go to the Museum of Modern Art, when you go to the Netherlands, you go Amsterdam Museum. But when visitors come to Dhaka and they want to see Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan, Mohammad Kibria and younger artists’ works, where can you take them? We only have one museum and there is art on one floor. Why not a separate museum for art in Dhaka city? We need an art museum badly. He agreed and said it is a wonderful proposal. We should consider it. I also informed him that many presidential houses around the world have museums like the White House in Washington.

Why not arrange a permanent art gallery at Bangabhaban? He said, “We are planning, but our present space is not enough. We are planning to set up another building for an art museum near Bangabhaban.”

It is very good the government is thinking like that. We spend millions of dollars on Dhaka city every year. How much money is needed to set up a 10- storey art museum in the centre of Dhaka? How much is needed to collect art works from the artists and display those permanently? For the government, it is nothing.

I am now 71 years old. My bell is ringing. I don't know how many days I have to live. It is my request through the media to artists, the government, and intellectuals, please establish a modern art museum in Dhaka city.

Thank you.

 

Kalidas Karmakar

INTERVIEW Kalidas Karmakar, 71, is an internationally reputed painter and printmaker. He has numerous national and international awards and done many exhibitions at home and abroad. The artist recently came to Bangladesh from the USA to receive the Shilpakala Padak (award) for fine arts. In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Independent, he shared his thoughts about his works and the contemporary art scene in our country. Please tell us about the contemporary art scene in Bangladesh. Contemporary art in Bangladesh started after independence from Britain. Our Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Shilpa Guru Quamrul Hassan, and Shilpa Guru Safiuddin Ahmed, Anwarul Huq, Khawaja Shafique Ahmed and Habibur Rahman, they all came from the Government School of Art in Kolkata, the oldest art school in the Indian subcontinent. After independence in 1947, when East Pakistan formed, they returned to their homeland and set up an art school, named Government Institute of Arts and Crafts, in just one room on Jonson Road in Old Dhaka. After 60 years or so, almost every district in the country now has at least one art college or school, both private and government. Then we have hundreds of working artists at home and abroad. Our art has developed tremendously over the past 60 years, especially in the last 20 years. Our younger generation of artists are working with different mediums and exploring. They exhibit their works internationally, in a personal capacity or with help from the government. They then return home and do their own artwork and enrich the art field of Bangladesh. You see today, due to the internet, you can see any museum, any art gallery, and any artists works on your tab or smartphone or computer. It is one side that is wonderful because the whole world is in your hands. But in the creative field, it also has a negative side. An artist has to work and get inspiration from his own soil, from his own culture, and from his own heritage. Bangladesh has a Bengali culture which is many centuries old. We always say hajar bochhorer bangalir itihash (thousand-year history of Bengal). That is wrong. It is not a thousand years, but a couple of thousand years. Our delta land is made up of alluvial soil. The Ganges and Jamuna rivers flow through it. We have no mountains or stone, so our architectural heritage has been ruined, through water or floods. But our culture is very old. Any artist should be globalised in their thinking. But their subject and conviction, their motif, should be their own soil and culture. Our Language Movement, our democratic movement, our liberation in 1971 _ have great impact not only on our poets or writers, but also our painters. Our flood also inspired Zainul Abedin to do the Monpura painting. On August 15, 1975, Father of Our Nation was killed with his family in a brutal way. That also influenced many artists. After 1975, it was very difficult to utter the name of Bangabandhu. But I painted. One of my paintings is called Nihoto surjo mukhi (Killed Sunflower), I pasted a real bullet on this painting. I dont know where it is now. I have a copy of its image, but not the original painting. I painted another painting called Rahu. In the night, rahu grostho, a disoriented culprit came and killed all four national leaders in jail (on November 3, 1975). I created a rahu with a skull. Fortunately, that painting is still in Bangladesh in the personal collection of Ali Zaker, a renowned theatre personality. Artists must convey their inner feeling, convey their agony. Love and pleasure cannot create art. Pleasure makes you sleepy. You need agony. Any kind of agony creates a kind of reaction in your mind that you want to forget, you want to write, paint, recite or sing to overcome that agony. The art that an artist produces is just for self, not for others. Could you tell us something about your first solo exhibition? I started my artistic career professionally after I returned to Bangladesh after our liberation in 1971. My first solo exhibition was held at Shilpakala Academy in 1976. It was the biggest solo exhibition at the time. Then, I exhibited 121 works, using different mediums. I used things like wood, metal, cement, brass, copper, and many junk materials, I worked on wood and created some metal collages. And in the beginning, my work was not accepted by art critics or artists in this country. I remember Bangladesh held its first national art exhibition in 1975. There, I submitted one of my metal collage works, named Communism. At first, it was rejected. But later, it was exhibited. After the opening, many leftist leaders came to me and asked why I called it Communism. Because communism is like a factory, communism is not a soothing thing, you created a face which looks very ugly and unhappy, communists are not unhappy, explain it to us, they said. I was very young at that time. I told them that you see, I have never been to a communist country. But what I heard is that the system can fulfil three basic needs _ food, healthcare and education. But the system cannot give freedom to your soul, to express yourself. So, I believe this system will disappear because it will not give you freedom. That is conveyed through this painting. In 1975, I said that. I am not a philosopher. I am not a fortune-teller, but I told them that. What do we see in the world today? Communism is finished. I believe human beings need freedom. They need freedom of expression. Whether they have a full stomach or stay hungry. Even a hungry person, if you give him a song, he will feel good. Stomach is empty, but if they listen to some music, they feel good. So, the mind is most important. That painting still exists. I am very happy that my first work of metal collage is in the collection of National Art Gallery. Tell us about the new forms of art you introduced in Bangladesh. I tried to introduce many mediums in this country. Without knowing it was new. Akku Chowdhury ran a gallery called La Galerie on top of an ice cream shop in Banani. Using (motorcar) junk parts that I bought from Dholaikhal, I set up these installations in the middle of an exhibition. They represented the result after the Pakistan army burned the houses. So, the book is burning, doll is burning, clothes are burning, furniture is burning. I tried to create that atmosphere as a kind of installation art. That was the first in this country. But you know installation art is not a new thing. When we take a corpse to the cremation ground and make a pyre, that is also installation. That is a part of our life. We never say it is art. Tell us about your performance art. I started performance art for the first time in the Sundarbans. In early 1980s, using mud and dyes on my body, I performed at Kotka, also at Rashmela on Dublar Char. I performed in the open air, more than 5,000 people enjoyed the mud and colours. I found a singer with a dotara (a folk musical instrument with two strings). Then a few students from Khulna Art College joined me. They asked what I was doing. I said look _ think about Pakistani soldiers fighting with Muktijodhhas (freedom fighters). Some were injured some received bullets, some were crawling through the mud. I made a flag circle with fire coming up, people played music all around, that was performance art. We all performed together. Shilpakala Academy arranged a performance art festival last April. They honoured me with life-time achievement award because they thought I started this. But performance art is nothing new in this country. We have a century-old history of performance art. We have social performance art called chorok puja, you go to Shiva temple and offer water and milk at night, that is a ritual performance. During Muharram, they bite themselves and cry hai Hasan, hai Hossain, that is performance. The West took the essence from the East and called it a new kind of art. No! Performance art belongs to our society. Not in the West, not in America, not France. So, in performance art, installation art, assembling art, everything belongs to our soil, our country. These are not coming from the West. They (western countries) have means, they have money, they have the media. They have exhibitions, they say this is something new. How would you compare Bangladeshi art to international art? Now many young artists are doing many beautiful works in this country. The younger generation is doing much better. We have all, but we dont project them, that is sad. We need more promotion, Bangladeshs young generation art is parallel to the art of any developed countys, like France, German, Japan, Korea. In some instance, it is better, but we dont have the promotion. We need our government, our Shilpakala Academy, to consider this, to exhibit Bangladeshi art in foreign countries. There are many art fairs around the world, like Sydney art fair, Chicago art fair, Oslo art fair, Korea art fair, German art fair, Miami art fair, Zurich art fair. So, we need to focus our younger generations art at all these art fairs, because buyers come there from around the world, You know, at Miami art fairs opening day, 1,200 private collectors called to buy. Only Cosmos Art Gallery took part in the Miami art fair a few years back in a private capacity. Tell us about the new trends in Bangladesh art. Now, printmaking is a strong movement in Bangladesh. I helped set up Cosmos Atelier 71 printmaking studio. This is the biggest studio not only in Bangladesh, but in whole Asia. The etching machine made in Dhaka by Sadek Hossain from Jessore is the best etching press now. And Cosmos Atelier 71 has great contribution in developing the younger generation of artists. At this years national art exhibition, four out of 10 young artists went to Atelier 71. That means it has the atmosphere. Because an artist doesnt need good food, an artist needs a pleasant, healthy working atmosphere, where he or she can explore his or her emotions about painting, without any fear, without any interruptions, and free expression. They need a kind of place where nobody interferes with you. Cosmos doesnt interfere; Atelier 71 is a free place for all younger artists. Now we have many good studios, many individual artists have individual machines. I believe that in Bangladesh, we are developing economically, our contemporary art is developing faster than any economic development. And of any creative medium, literature, poetry, drama, music, whatever, fine arts can bring more international recognition for Bangladesh. So, the government should realise this reality and promote more contemporary artists at home and abroad. And I want to say one thing, Bangladesh badly needs a modern art museum in Dhaka city where works from Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan to younger artists can be displayed permanently and people of Bangladesh, students, foreign delegates can come to see them. The other day, I was given Shilpakala Padak by President Hamid. I told the honourable president that when you go to Paris, you see Louvre Museum, when you go to New York, you go to the Museum of Modern Art, when you go to the Netherlands, you go Amsterdam Museum. But when visitors come to Dhaka and they want to see Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan, Mohammad Kibria and younger artists works, where can you take them? We only have one museum and there is art on one floor. Why not a separate museum for art in Dhaka city? We need an art museum badly. He agreed and said it is a wonderful proposal. We should consider it. I also informed him that many presidential houses around the world have museums like the White House in Washington. Why not arrange a permanent art gallery at Bangabhaban? He said, We are planning, but our present space is not enough. We are planning to set up another building for an art museum near Bangabhaban. It is very good the government is thinking like that. We spend millions of dollars on Dhaka city every year. How much money is needed to set up a 10- storey art museum in the centre of Dhaka? How much is needed to collect art works from the artists and display those permanently? For the government, it is nothing. I am now 71 years old. My bell is ringing. I dont know how many days I have to live. It is my request through the media to artists, the government, and intellectuals, please establish a modern art museum in Dhaka city. Thank you.