Photo : Messenger
Artist Zahangir Alom’s hopes, dreams and vitality are irresistible. He keeps himself busy celebrating life in tasting the pleasures of world creation. His devotion and dedication attach to paintings. In this exhibition, the impression of his continuous practice and transition is conceivable.
Zahangir paints from the core of his heart, intoxicated by the festival of creative pleasures. Having worked as ‘Resident Artist’ of Oriental Painting Studio for a long time, he has developed his own style of watercolour wash technique.
The maturity of colour mixing is the unique quality of his painting. The essence of long musical pursuits may have created a new dimension in colour diffusion. He feels the inner music of earth’s soil-water-forest. The maturity of the various playfulness of colour mixing impresses me again and again. Some of his works are semi-abstract. The mature arrangement of colours in the painting can be seen in conjunction with the maturity of his senses. He can be called a saint due to his unflinching devotion to painting.
The melody of the music, the rhythm of the poem and the dance of the female body are alluded to in his paintings. Sometimes ‘Gaudiya Nritya’, sometimes ‘Desh’, sometimes ‘Bageshree’, sometimes ‘Khamaj’ or ‘Malkauns’ raga; sometimes the play of clouds, sometimes the afternoon of Late-Autumn, sometimes magical twilight, sometimes the beauty of Bengal, sometimes ‘Leelakirtan’, sometimes the subject- narrative of mythological anecdotes play in his paintings. He paints many images of flowers which do not exactly resemble real flowers. Here the colour comes with the charming message of form.
The itinerant artist’s work celebrates the visible nature, but his view of nature is not a close-up view. Hence the multi-character novel is created in canvases where trees, soil, rivers, water and clouds create different characters. Art lovers can interact with each character.
He made series paintings based on the motifs of Bengal’s Sarachitra - which are mixed with the new language of Bengali folk paintings. The inner flowers, female figures, trees and foliage are arranged in an imagined alchemy. Although the painting is a traditional wash method, the painting is full of three-dimensional mixed colour play. This exhibition includes works in the watercolour wash technique. The shape of the figure is similar to heap of clouds in the movement of colours. There is no attempt at clarification, but the figures (mostly female figures) give the appearance of real flesh figures. This skill has been acquired through his long practice and watching the work of oriental artists in the studio. Not only that, Zahangir’s practice and education did not disturb the institutional order.
He has created his own style in technique, which is a combination of traditional wash method and Western Tertiary colour coating. In most of his works, he has used red, blue, yellow, orange and black colours with the same brightness. There remain the expanse of standing trees, the glimmer of light through the gaps in the trees and the evocative silhouettes of childhood memories in his paintings. Almost every work has a touch of blue.
The Monsoon, rain-drenched nature, the smell of the earth and the colour of the air are saturated in the melody of nature’s music. Like the artists of the neo-Bengal school, mythological heroines such as Radha, Lalita, Bisakha or Behula characters have repeatedly appeared in the gesture of Sankirtan. The pulse of God is found in his work.
Essentially his paintings have created their own worlds which are captives of world creation.
Messenger/Dish
