The New Nation - Internet Edition

Art & Culture Report

Subrata Das has started his artistic pursuits in a very modest fashion. He has chosen to depict nothing magnificent, but only his own working brushes as the dominating image on his canvasses. This is nothing unusual on the part of a beginner who is in desperate quest of a personal vocabulary in the field of paintings. For the majority of his category a soothing and romantic viewpoint of the image would have been the predictable choices. But Subrata has decided to traverse a different track," said Abul Manusr abou the work of budding artist Subratan Das at his solo exhibition titled 'Perception 2' at the Alliance Francaise in Dhanmondi in the city. The exhibition ended recently.

Most of Subrata's works were paintbrushes. These objects were inflated, stretched out and irresistible. The brushes were not something beautiful` or soothing but fearsome and confusing.

This does not mean that Subrata's paintings were ugly or frightening. In some of the paintings the brushes appeared gently bend and curl although they were monstrous and have impossible, frightening features of giants, ghosts and spirits of the wild, with disturbing representations of hands and feet. At times the brushes and paint tubes had ugly teeth and dazzling rickshaw decorations on them, in the form of popular plastic cut-out decorations, seen in the shapes of naively created parrots, flowers and leaves.

Subrata has also tried to depict the socio-economic situations around him, where human being feels limited and quiet.

He was weary of the daily routines of life and was entangled in nightmares of twisted existence around him. The hunger, need and loneliness found among everyday people around us were presented in a surrealistic way.

Subrata took part in more than ten group shows and four workshops.

He won two awards including the 'Honourable Mention Award' of the 16th Young Artists' Art Exhibition of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy this year.