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Sabur’s Quest

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Sheikh Arif Bulbon:
Abdus Sabur is a name little known to both art collectors and artists of new generation. After completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), he was completely immersed in the world of cinematography and took it as a profession. He gained fame as the Chief Art Director of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) and won numerous awards for his contribution in the film industry of this country, including BACHSAS Award, Zahir Raihan Award, and National Award for five times. At the end of his prosperous career, he pampers in painting.
His first solo painting exhibition titled “Quest” featuring 29 of his untitled artworks were on display at the Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in the city’s Dhanmondi area recently.
While observing Sabur’s works we can find that most of his works were done mainly in abstract style. The ‘60s was a crucial decade in the context of modern art in Bangladesh. Sabur’s works clearly expose the history and his works clearly reveal the sign of the time.
All the paintings were fine examples of his talent and represent the perfection in his drawings and compositions. An experimental and intuitive approach is evident in his works. Nature is the ultimate source of his inspiration. In some of his works, the necessary smoothness of composition has been given strength by lack of an accurate background. His works depend on the adoption of painstaking, specialised characteristic of mainstream modernism. The impetuosity of figure drawing and the local fascination of bright colours lend a unique quality to his work.
Sabur’s works display a highly individualised perception. It shows definite signs of investigation into the structural properties of art such as space, colour and the nature of materials. In some of his works the essential flatness of the composition has been given depth by the lack of a proper background.
The week-long exhibition was inaugurated by famous novelist and playwright Syed Shamsul Haque. Noted film actress and Member of the Parliament Sarah Kabari was also present as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony, while eminent artist Syed Jahangir and M Hamid, Managing Director of BFDC, were present as special guests on the occasion.
The exhibition was totally appreciated by the visitors of the gallery and all of young artists learnt the new dimension of abstract painting from the favourite student of two late legendary masterpieces of our country - Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Quamrul Hassan.
Abdus Sabur, born in 1936 and died in 2008, spent his childhood in old Dhaka. He passed from Dhaka Collegiate School in 1950. Later he enrolled in then Dhaka Art Institute (now Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University) and was placed his first class first in his BFA examination in 1955. He started his career in Lahore, Pakistan. He learnt cinematography from the renowned Baby Islam.
Born to a conservative family, he grew up with liberal ideologies. He was actively involved in social work during the famine in 1943. This thing was also reflected in his minds as later he used this emotional thinking in his paintings. For this reason, his worked were depicted in the quest of a journey. n