The simple yet touching old Bangla sayings have been presented through vivid calligraphy at a solo exhibition by artist Arham-Ul-Huq Chowdhury at
Dhaka Art Centre in Dhanmondi.
The eight-day exhibition titled Articulation in Alphabet features 52 pieces of calligraphy, a form of visual art created with alphabets.
The artist has used brush with acrylic paints on thick handmade paper. Meticulously created intricate curves, spirals and alignments of the alphabets in bright assortment of colours revealing lucid stories make the artworks a feast for the eyes in the fifth solo calligraphy show by Arham-Ul-Huq Chowdhury, a pioneer in exhibiting and popularising Bangla calligraphy in the country.
His work is influenced by the Persian tughra style but the core remains very native Bengali, with its ancient phrases and motifs giving the genre a distinctive Bangla character.
Characters like tigers, fish, elephants, Hindu deities, boats, houses, mosques, and several other objects relevant to the particular idioms have been illustrated along with the Bangla calligraphic words inscribed within the image.
Chowdhury has portrayed the old saying Jahajer Kachhe Jeler Dingi[A fisherman’s dingy near a ship] through drawing a ship and a small boat through utilising mundane shades of brown and black
Another artwork Biral Tappashhi in which the word biral [cat] makes the head while tappashhi [saint] creates the body of the cat holding prayer beads in one of its front legs.
A huge katol fish depicted by the words Ekebarey Katla and three small fish drawn with alphabets in words chuno, puti and noy together form the calligraphy Chuno Puti Noy Ekebare Katla[Not frys a huge in one].
A smaller donkey in light grey within a bigger horse in black can be seen in artwork Samay Guney Apan Par Ghora Gadha Ek Dar [In times close becomes distant, horse and ass sells at the same]. The animals depicted through careful outlining of alphabets soothe the eyes of the viewers.
Ghumonto Bagh Shikar Dhorey Na[A sleeping tiger never hunts], an old saying, has been transformed into the image of a sleeping tiger in an artwork titled the same.
About the calligraphies, the artist informed New Age that he has chosen Bangla alphabets instead of English or Arabic from his deepest love for the language and also to popularise Bangla calligraphy. Inaugurated on April 19, the exhibition will remain open for all from 3:00 to 8:00pm till April 26.
-With New Age input
