River has always been a source of livelihood for the people of Bangladesh, a country crisscrossed with numerous rivers. Rivers not only nurture life but they have helped shape the minds of many artists of this region who have been depicting the character of rivers in their paintings from time immoral.
Such a river-revering artist is Bipad Bhanjan Sen Karmaker, who has portrayed the breath-taking beauty of rivers and also mankind’s dependency on them in 52 acrylic paintings at a solo art exhibition titled Color of Natural Disposition at the La Galerie of the Alliance Française de Dhaka at Dhanmondi.
‘I was born in Manikganj and I spend my childhood days on the bank of Dhaleshwari River. My artistic thoughts were deeply influenced by childhood memories of my village, particularly the river and also the life surrounding it,’ told Karmaker about his creative thought process to New Age.
Therefore, on his canvases, Karmakar has made an attempt to depict the day to day life of common people who are dependent on rivers for their livelihood. One such painting titled Collecting Water depicts two women carrying pitchers on their way to a river to fetch water. The river with a boat floating on it and also the blue sky above have been painted by the artist with bold stokes of vivid colours like blue, green, yellow and other colours in that painting.
Fishermen with fishing nets and baskets have also appeared in the paintings of the artist. A painting titled Fishermen depicts a man carrying fishing net on his back while walking along the bank of a river.
However, rivers are not always life-givers as they can often play the role of life-takers during devastating storms. One of the paintings of Karmaker titled River Storm depicts the destructive force of a storm on a river as small boats are shown struggling to survive against huge waves during a river tempest.
Began on March 16, the exhibition will remain open for everybody from 12:00 t0 8:00pm till March 27.
-With New Age input
