This 2006 painting is a transmutation of nature and life into an abstract image. Mohammad Eunus is a keen observer of life around him, and in his work, he carefully develops layers where elements from the observable world overlap with the effects – textures, markings and shapes – that are left on the surface of each artwork as an outcome of the processes he employs. His poetic vision serves as a unifying force. His surfaces are his works where lines and forms are arrived at not as a result of premeditated aesthetic gambits but as a resonance of life experienced on a daily basis. There is a multisensory dimension to his paintings as in this piece where segments are created by dividing the canvas horizontally. The sounds and colours that overwhelm the senses are given a second life through textures and the spontaneously developed lines that go beyond the bounds of the yellow midriff of the painting. The vague suggestion of walls and dilapidated buildings and a figure developed through mark-making seem to make the image come alive.
Mohammad Eunus
Mohammed Eunus is a famous abstractionist whose imageries epitomize the new spirit of making surface painting more permeable to everyday experience. Born in 1954 in Thakurgaon, he attended the PTI school in Thakurgaon. After passing the SSC examination he enrolled in the graduate programme at the Government College of Arts and Crafts (now Institute of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka) and obtained his degree in 1978. Later, he completed his master’s from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. He developed into a full-fledged artist during his study in Japan where he accidentally veered away from his early style and began exploring abstraction as a language of expression. Eunus’s work has been exhibited widely. He has received many awards and accolades for his contribution to art. Notable among them are the Grand Prize, Kodo Art Show, Tokyo (1989), an Honourable Mention in the 13th National Art Exhibition (1998), the Arab Bangladesh Bank Award in the 11th National Art Exhibition (1994), the 3rd Prize in the First Islamic Biennale in Tehran (2001), the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Award in the 16th National Art Exhibition, Dhaka (2004) and the Emar International Art Symposium Award, UAE (2005). Mohammed Eunus also teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka.
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Artist Art Style
Mohammad Eunus became known for his personalised surface painting where abstract elements mostly defined by way of textured surface onto which suggestive shapes and marks commingle. The painter frequently tries out different arrangements of textures, dots, marks and shapes to arrive at various different compositions to address various different states of mind. The artist feels that drawings are a process of visualizing thoughts, giving shape to one’s inner world. And what makes the daily routine of a painter interesting is the accidents that separate one painting from another creating the possibility of uniqueness. The tradition of abstraction in Bangladesh has long been beholden to American Abstract Expressionism and the geometric composition linked to Parisian avant-garde. Eunus made it a point to bring into the painterly space a flurry of emotional and actual experiences to meddle with the very idea of pure abstraction. His judicious yet bold insertion of a set of vague references to city walls and dilapidated buildings makes his visual proposition emotionally fraught.
Gallery
Title: Untitled
Dimension: 56.5″ X 113″
Year: 2017
Title: Untitled
Dimension: 21″ X 21″
Year: 2004
Title: Untitled
Year: 2006
Title: Untitled
Size: 10.5 X 14 inch
Year: 2004