Inaugural
Speech by the Hon'ble Foreign Minister at the opening
ceremony of 'Imaginings', solo art exhibition of art
works by Abu Taher at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts
(27 July 2005)
My
dear artist friend, Mr. Abu Taher,
Special Guest, Ambassador Farooq Sobhan,
fellow art lovers,
ladies and gentlemen,
I
am happy to be here this afternoon to inaugurate the
two-week long solo art exhibition of works by Abu
Taher. I would like to congratulate Bengal Gallery
of Fine Arts for organising the exhibition.
I
am personally very happy that late last year, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs was able to collaborate
through the Bangladesh High Commission in Canberra
to organise an exhibition of Abu Taher's representative
works in Australia.
Ladies
and gentlemen,
Abu Taher is one of the most prolific painters of
Bangladesh and perhaps needs no new introduction.
He has been painting for nearly four decades now and
has exhibited his proficiency in diverse mediums.
Although known best for his oil paintings in the abstract
mode, Taher has also produced impeccable works in
watercolour and some prolific figurative works. He
has experimented with collage-like compositions and
calligraphy. He has also done some miniature and lithographs.
He relates instinctively to the material he uses,
whether it is the delicate transparency of water-colour
or the thick application of his signature impasto
technique.
His
preoccupation with colour, tone and texture has given
him a distinctive forte. He celebrates colours - colours
come alive in his masterful strokes and become more
than colour.
He uses texture dexterously, bringing a tactile fullness
to the span of his canvas. His thick embellishment
of paint on canvas adds value to the rhapsody of colours
that he creates. His devotion to pictorial aesthetics
is borne out by the meticulous care he takes in choosing
his material and how he uses them.
There
is an element of the lyrical in Taher's composition.
The canvas presents the assemblage of an anthem in
the making; and one experiences refreshing sublimation.
Abu Taher's aesthetic pulse lies precisely at this
nexus of the primordial and the sublime.
Ladies
and gentlemen,
The current exhibition is again a feast for the senses
- Imaginings, or what Abu Taher calls
the lyrics from the world of imaginations. In the
works displayed, there is Abu Taher with all his characteristic
creative excellence, and more.
I
have great pleasure therefore in inaugurating the
exhibition and inviting you all to this lyrical journey
of imaginings.
I
thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
