Sultan Ishtiaque's exposition begins tomorrow at Gallery Chitrak
Realism is largely believed to have commenced modern art. Plainly, this is due to its opinion that daily chores and living surrounding ambiance are suitable subjects for art. Realism concentrates on the progressive aims of modernism, questing for novel truths through the reassessment and debunking of traditional systems of values and beliefs. Realism concerned itself with how life was planned socially, economically, politically, and culturally in the mid-nineteenth century. This led to unyielding, sometimes terrible and awful portrayals of life's distasteful moments and many more. Realism was the first openly anti-institutional, non-conformist art movement. Sultan Ishtiaque is one of the earnest followers of realism in our country and his thinking process and belief engulfed the genre of art. It has been deeply observed his capability to draw mass and their unending struggle, deep pain, surrounding dimension, textural malleability and he constructs sensitive compositions, which are really remarkable. His paintings are fresh, strongly built (in the sense of density of colours) and provide the spectators a sense of pleasure. A socially conscious artist, Sultan paints people, capturing the diverse moments of their social bindings. He uses loose brushstrokes to delineate the various elements in his compositions, in which the subjects provide movement and colour, living scenes in which light and the atmosphere create a mysterious effect.
Sultan emotionally paints the Old Dhaka and its narrow and congested road, the adjacent ambiance of dockyards. The massiveness of dockyards and its vibes of light and shadow ponder him to focus on the subject. The labourious and diverse activities in dockyards have been deeply imprinted in his mind. Dockyards employ great number of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labours in an unhygienic environment. The life is very harsh and unpleasant there and the toiler's daily chores, ecstasies, anguishes and dreams can also be discerned some of his works. He prefers to paint the people he knows. Therefore his neighboring subject is his first, and favourite field of investigation. He never finds it a problem to be- treated as a storyteller of a humanistic tradition, classical in his painting approach, as long as it shows the compassion and the emotions he experiences when painting his subjects.
Sultan elaborately portrays the ship building process, drudgers engrossed with works, upside down ships and cargos under repair, scrap metals of ships scattered on the ground and plying ships on docks. He also portrays small and big boats in all their possible varieties as well as repairing and maintenance activities around the banks of the rivers.
Sultan also closely scrutinises the metropolis' unplanned urbanisation, ruined richness of heritage, changing socio-political and economic conditions. For deeper inspiration and bringing variation in his thematic works, the artist has passionately visited different parts of Old Dhaka and other parts of the country.
Sultan fervently paints Old Dhaka with its vibrant activities, downtrodden people and their daily chores, rickshaw pullers, narrow alleys, condensed habitations, wrecked buildings, cluttered wires, scattered across roads, jam-packed atmosphere, etc. He does not draw any single figure; he depicts people in masses in different approaches and aided by sufferings, torments, bliss and ecstasies.
Sultan has brought a completely new theme for the current exhibition. He superbly portrays Dubai's full of jaw-dropping views from its myriad of skyscrapers. He visited the city few years back and its modern structural designs and mind-boggling views still haunted him immensely. In the series of painting, Sultan simplified the image by creating planes of hazy hues for the shapes that are crucial to the overall structure of the composition. The viewer's eye is directed into the composition by the diagonal recession of strong azure shadows. The diagonal contours of the shadows disrupt the otherwise predominantly vertical composition.
Most of his works have a great tendency towards study based simultaneously with experimentation of various themes and objects. Besides works produced by water and pencil, Sultan has also contributed several oil paintings for the exhibition. He is comfortable in oil medium as it gives him an opportunity to enjoy its liberty and suppleness. He spends enough time whenever he is to complete a piece of oil painting. Observing his works thoroughly, one can easily feel the apparently lucid tonalities running smooth before the eye. He tries to express his feelings through simple realistic articulation, though shades differ from time to time in his works. The exhibition discloses life's elation, thrill, vibration, depression, peace and other poetic aspects of urban life.
Sultan has a passion in meticulous curation of rural and semi-urban issues with vibrant shades. His watercolours are revitalising and offer the viewers with a sense of bliss. His depictions are jovial and have the right kind of resilience, that is to say, he knows where to bring things to an end. In his short career, he has developed a style in watercolour medium. The medium's lucidity gives him a freedom to express his creativity properly. His watercolours have been done by swift brushstrokes. He possesses sufficient perseverance and potentials necessary for transforming visual insight of the world into a heart-rending approach. He draws pleasure from painting which moves his creative soul and enables him to translate language, colour and composition. In the process, the viewer gets to know the artist's individuality and mental state at the time of painting.
When Sultan gets immersed with his paintings, he loses himself. He is recognised for nurturing enough gallantry to destroy his labourious productions if he finds them unsatisfactory and therefore to create a new pattern, as the world of painting surrounds him from all possible dimensions. He most certainly does not seem to relent and on the contrary cannot help but breathe life into each painting. In this very way Sultan applies colours and creates mind-boggling images. He puts layers upon layers of paint and draws objects continuously, until he feels that he has achieved what he has been striving for. The outcome is a contemplative, subtly balanced arrangement of colours and space that does not fail to draw an art enthusiast's eyes.
