An encomium to artist Qayyum Chowdhury

A few weeks before his death in November in 2014, I went to Gallery Chitrak in Dhanmondi in the evening for just a hang out, where I came across artists Rafiqun Nabi, Jamal Ahmed and Mohammad Muniruzzaman. After a while, artist Qayyum Chowdhury appeared on the spot gleefully. We spent some time for discussion and talked on various issues. He looked lively. It was nowhere in my mind that it would be his last meeting with me. He was a workaholic person and associated with various socio- cultural organisations.

Qayyum's works delve deep into folk, pastoral life and traditions. Most of his works highlight folk elements; and the recurring motifs are birds, greenery, flowers, fish, rural women carrying pitchers, peasants, freedom fighters, lush foliage and bulls. His realistic and semi-realistic works on the Bangladeshi countryside were marked by his lucid and personal technique. His excessive use of space provides grace to all his work that belongs to this sensuous grade. Tactile, sharp and stirring colours give that depth and shape to his drawings and paintings. Over the years, his use of colours and geometric forms had been applauded. He was a noted illustrator and he illustrated many books. It is very true that sometimes designs, and largely illustration, often take away from the aesthetics of his paintings.

Qayyum set out as a figurative painter. During the early stages of his career, his works focused on nature and human figures. Some of his works seem to convey a sense of solitude. The colours he generally used -- green, red, yellow and azure -- flow and merge with passion. The effortless intermingling of colours produce visions that are refreshing and his figures always seem enigmatic. By merging modern techniques with the traditional cultural heritage he enriched the field of artistic creativity in variety of ways. His technical intelligence and expressive power are noticeable.

Qayyum was the successor to Zainul Abedin and Qamrul Hassan. He ranged freely through the many chambered mansion of art. The uniqueness of his resourceful talent could be readily gauged. A fleeting look at any of his artworks shows the essential brilliance of his artistic idiom exposing novel aesthetic perspective. In his creations he presented the people, rural environments and its surrounding atmosphere, the rivers of Bangladesh and other aspects of nature. His art pieces are radiant with inventiveness, and in the field of watercolours and oil painting. His lines are as fluent as those of his illustrious predecessors. They also seek variety, sometimes produced feminine faces, sometimes natural scenes, sometimes capturing childhood memories.

March 9 marked the 89th birth anniversary of Qayyum Chowdhury.

The writer is an art critic and cultural curator