In the country’s portrait photography arena, the name Nasir Ali Mamun comes as a pioneer. His camera, in the last four decades, has captured some wonderful portraits of famous men/women of the country and abroad. He is also noted for his portrait-photographs of common people, which capture the underlying reality beneath surface appearances. However, Mamun is also a devoted art collector with an enviable possession of hundreds of artworks by many famous artists.
From his personal collection, Mamun is displaying drawings and paintings by 54 famous artists in an ongoing exhibition at
Bengal Shilpalaya in the capital.
Mamun’s intention is to collect funds from exhibition sales to build a photography museum in the vicinity of the capital. This is for the second time that Mamun has displayed his collections; the first one was held in 2012.
On display, there are works by SM Sultan, Quamrul Hassan, Murtaja Baseer, Mustafa Monwar, Qayyum Chowdhury, Jogen Chowdhury, Hamiduzzaman Khan, Shahabuddin, Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Shahid Kabir, Shishir Bhattacharjee, Syed Jahangir, Dhali Al Mamoon and many other noted artists.
What are likely to attract the viewers are drawings by individuals who are immensely popular, but not regular art practitioners. Among them are poets, writers and actors like Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shamsur Rahman, Purnendu Pattrea, Nirmalendu Goon, Humayun Ahmed, Soumitra Chatterjee, Anisuzzaman.
Most of the drawings and paintings are simple, but reflects mastery, as most of them are produced by master artists.
To speak of some displayed works, SM Sultan’s pencil drawing is a portrait of Michael Madhushudan Dutt. Artist Hamiduzzaman Khan, Farida Zaman, Syed Iqbal and Sheikh Afzal have drawn and painted Rabindranath Tagore’s face in different mediums.
Poet Nirmalendu Goon has sketched a woman’s face with a prominent red bindi on the forehead, while late novelist Humayun Ahmed has painted a female face in exuberant green. Suhash Roy’s print titled Radha is also a piece that art lovers and collectors would love to possess.
‘Parting with these treasures is painful for me; but as I wish to build a Photoseum (photography museum), I need to collect funds for that’, said Nasir Ali Mamun.
Inaugurated on June 14, the exhibition remains open for all from 12pm to 8pm till July 5.
-With New Age input
