This 2002 abstract painting by Mohammad Kibria is one of his untitled paintings. It screams a thousand words by remaining silent. He brings out the hurt of the soul, the underlying longing of loneliness, and puts colors in the wound. He explores himself, his truth, and conflicts through his painting. It is a journey of the soul and which connects him with the world around him. He creates new forms, deluding figures, and brings new compositions with his purposeful use of color. The contrast he creates is the contrast he lives in.
It is the constant battle of his mind and his yearning for a life of stability. Through this painting, he creates that he fails to say with words. It’s a confession of a wounded soul.
Artist Profile
Mohammad Kibria
Mohammad Kibria, a famous Bangladeshi artist was born in 1929 at Birbhum, Bengal Presidency, British India. He graduated from the Government School of Art at the University of Calcutta in 1950. In 1951, he came to Dhaka and started his career as an art teacher at the Nawabpur High School. In 1954, prompted by his teacher and mentor Zainul Abedin, Kibria joined the then Government College of Arts and Crafts and eventually became a Faculty member of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). He studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts from 1959 until 1962. He was exposed to the international museums where he got the chance to watch works of the modern masters and received training under world-famous contemporary abstractionists. Kibria died of old-age complications at LabAid Hospital in Dhaka on 7 June 2011 at the age of 82.
Untitled
Memorial
“Memorial” is a 1980 painting by artist Mohammad Kibria. Unlike most of his paintings, he named it “memorial” and buried the memories of the horrific days of 1971. He painted the memories of those days through muted grey and brown tones. He remembers the nights of mass killing, the feeling of living with fear, air polluted with the smell of decaying flesh, and captured them in the canvas to let the pain flow. It is his ode to the souls we lost, to the lives that fought, and a helplessness that is never going to live him.
This painting is his celebration and mourning wrapped all in one.
Art Style
Mohammad Kibria’s works fall into the categories of abstract art, abstract expressionistic art, and graphic art. In general, his art style shifts from Impressionism to an expressionistic form. His philosophy of life where the natural cycle of growth and decay provides an informing insight into his art.
