Art lovers fear works may be lost again
The master artist SM Sultan’s study works representing his transition period in the early 1950s has been found from the shelves of the artist’s once companion Abul Kasem Joarder. After renovations of the study drawings, mostly done in charcoal and pencil, Bengal Shilpalaya is exhibiting these sketches for sale. For over five decades, the drawing book lay in a pile of papers in Abul Kasem Joarder’s residence fighting the vagaries of weather and time.
Joarder, a teacher at Jessore Michael Madhusudan College in the 1950s, rediscovered it and decided to make its content public.
The displayed works feature human figures, animals, birds, flowers — construction and deconstruction forms— come alive in Sultan’s exquisite execution of lines which celebrate nature and life in their graceful movement, and occasionally evoke the beauty of the female body.
The drawings done in pencil are mostly studies of faces. And the charcoal sketches comprise bold and lyrical curvy lines, which are more suggestive than complete. Some sketches are doodle like and random, and are inclined more towards abstraction than figuration.
The art lovers believe the collection introduces the viewers to a phase of his creativity from which many of Sultan’s works have been lost.
In this sense the study works do have significant historical importance as these represent the artist’s continuous experimentation on lines, shades and themes belonging to a period before the epic pastoral phase of Sultan, who is considered as one of the master artists of the globe.
So the art aficionados term it as ‘rediscovery of a lost treasure’, which allows the art lovers to have a look at the content and style Sultan pursued at the time.
Art lovers also expressed concern about the sale procedure of the artworks to private collectors.
They also observed that the price for the sale of the study works is very high raging between Tk 80,000 and Tk 250,000.
The organisers said that the proceedings of the sale of the 86 study works will be shared by Bengal Foundation, Sultan’s companion Joarder and Tangail based school Anadabhaban, since the director of the school Syed Aminul Haque Kaiser corresponded between the gallery and Joardar.
‘Has any scientific procedure been followed before claiming these artworks as Sultan’s as done in the foreign countries? I’ve seen forged artworks with my signature,’ internationally acclaimed artist Monirul Islam inquired New Age.
‘If these works are really authentic, then the government should have purchased and preserved those for research works. Otherwise there is every possibility of them being lost,’ acclaimed artist Nisar Hossain.
A visitor at the show named Shahnewaz Hossain Apu said that he was hurt at the sale of Sultan’s original works. ‘Sultan’s original works should not be sold rather should be preserved so that young artists like me can see them and learn,’ Apu, a fine art student at Rajshahi University said.
Another visitor Faiyan Zahir said, ‘Sultan is a pride of the nation. The nation should preserve his works.’
Director of Bengal Shilpalaya Subir Chowdhury also believes that Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy should have purchased and preserved the study works. ‘It’s regretting that the government agency is not concerned about the issue. But, Bengal Shilpalaya, which has a huge collection of Sultan’s works, will purchase the maximum works on display and will preserve those in its permanent gallery,’ Subir said.
‘Moreover, we have made visual documentation with high resolution camera of the works,’ he added.
Claiming the study works being authentic Subir said, ‘Eminent artists Qayyum Chowdhury and Rafiqunnabi, and art critic Ibrahim Khalid have scrutinised the works and confirmed the authenticity,’ Subir said.
Art critic professor Nazrul Islam, however, raises a different question. ‘The whole process of ‘lost and found’ indicates that no elaborate research on Sultan has been done in the country, which the universities should initiate.
-With New Age input
