The mixed-media painting “Burning Food” is a celebration of mundane events. In this 2011 painting, artist Shahid Kabir shades lights to the details that often get overlooked. Amidst the chaos, workload, hustle, and bustle, we forget to cherish every little thing. We forget to celebrate the first rain of monsoon, the first tea of the morning or day’s last cup of coffee. “Burning Food” is a reminder of what we are losing. The moment we stop revering every single moment with the same intensity is the moment when we let the essence of life slip away. Through this painting, the artist asked us to pause and live sometimes. He tells us to take rest, to feel deeply, and to be less calculated. That’s when we can experience the mystery of life and erotics of living.
Shahid Kabir
Shahid Kabir was born in Barishal, Bangladesh, in 1949. Kabir graduated from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Dhaka in 1969 and attained fame for his series on Lalon and Baul as early as in the 1980s. He left for Spain in 1981, only to resurface in the Dhaka art scene in 1997 after a gap of 17 years.
Notable among his awards are the Carmen Aroshamduzamena Prize, Madrid (1984). He taught in the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Dhaka, for nine years, until 1980. Kabir is a freelance painter who divides his time between Dhaka and Madrid.
Burning Food
Street Circus
Shahid Kabir, known for portraying disadvantaged and exploited communities in his paintings, painted “Street Circus” to reflect on the untold miseries and unnoticed efforts of artists performing on streets. This 2016 painting celebrates the life and hard work of people running small, roadside circus groups. Keeping the background simple, he highlighted the job put behind every show. Street Circus, as work, often gets overlooked and remain unappreciated. Shahid Kabir’s passionate but controlled brush stroke brings attention to the hidden gem lying around the corner.
This semi-realistic abstract art acknowledges the existence of a street circus. He creates the essence of life in a two- dimensional form. Instead of focusing on their brutal reality, he honors the art they create.
Artist Art Style
His subjects, drawn from real-life experiences, are depicted in mild impasto and a painterly fluidity, and the result is both evocative and sensuous. His empathetic stance and powerful insight have established him as an important painter and printmaker in Bangladesh. The formative years spent in Europe added a fuller dimension to his earlier practice. And as he came back home, he did so with gusto introducing a simple idiom that thrives on depiction, or rather, on creating an impression of every-day reality and objects. Water vessels, teapots, flower vase, and rotten fruits thus serve as a metonymic reference to a world where one roams with empathy as a guide. Brickfields, riverscapes, and working women also appear in his paintings. The overall look is faded and unembellished, evoking a sense of pathos.
