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Angry strokes
JANHAVI ACHAREKAR
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Shahabuddin's is the language of torment and aggression.
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Slice and violence: The fluid colours of Shahabuddin's work.
THE first thing that strikes you about Shahabuddin's work is the contrast of mood on a single canvas. Angry reds meet calm white spaces. Soothing blues confront despairing blacks. The energy of motion is overcome by an inert background. Silence meets violence.
It's not surprising that Shahabuddin's is the language of torment and aggression. Having spent his early years in the Mukti Bahini, the Bangladesh Liberation Army, he is no stranger to violence and death. Among the first to hoist the flag of a free Bangladesh, he is also familiar with the triumph after the ordeal. Today, although firmly ensconced in Paris and away from his home country, this internationally acclaimed artist continues to revisit the early period in his life through his work. And many honours and accolades since, torment continues to be his pet theme. His current show, presented by Vickram Sethi at the Institute of Contemporary Indian Art in Mumbai's art district, Kala Ghoda, is in his trademark style of burst of energy suspended in space as animals and messiahs vie for the viewer's attention, alternating between canvases. Proving to us, yet again, why Shahabuddin is considered one of the leading painters of our times.
Images from the past
Chasing cats, raging bulls, athletes in flight, wracking screams seem to echo images from a tumultuous past. Figures are central to every work and the action is almost primeval. Animals are seen poised for combat, as in "Chase". The chase, indeed, is a recurring theme as the images of violence continue to stalk their painter. Even the work "Affection", significantly, is tainted with the colour of blood. And yet, it is torment that makes its peace in the end. The stalking panther is dwarfed by its still background, as are the horses in "Speed". "Festival", a work crowded with despairing victims of violence, faceless and ravaged, is almost Biblical in its depiction of the Saviour (and yet ironical in title). Despite the energy and the colours of gore, the paintings have a lyrical quality almost, and the motion of poetry. The body of work seems to move from despair to hope, and from action to serenity. Or vice versa.
Shahabuddin is as preoccupied with peace as he is with carnage and this is apparent from the many portraitures of his messiahs. Gandhi, Christ, Mother Teresa, Mujibur Rehman, Tagore, are in stark contrast with his charging bulls and bucking horses. And yet, both share the virtue of strength — the strength of physicality as opposed to strength of purpose. His remarkable work "Gandhi" pays tribute to the Mahatma by presenting him in hallowed white, against white sand and blue sea. Shahabuddin tempers his yellows and reds of violence with the whites and blues of peace.
Surge of energy
However, in depicting both peace and violence, what stands out most in every work is the surge of energy and the rush of adrenalin. Whether it is the human figure charging into, and taking head-on, the forest (in the work titled "The Forest"), runaway horses in "Speed", Christ with shadow as if in motion or in flight, or the lone figure of Gandhi striding purposefully against an angry sky, we are left with a feeling of movement. Titles such as "The Charge", "The Chase", "Scream", "Storm" are telling of both theme and technique. Powerful strokes and thick gobs of paint wrack the canvas as much as the subject itself. Passion and energy become one with the craft. Texture is as important as colour and the result is clearly the voice of a soldier, of one who has emerged, not unscathed, from a violent militant struggle.
Shahabuddin's works are especially relevant in our times. The show, predictably, has done well. Shahabuddin expresses his faith and optimism in the Indian art market. It is a feeling well reciprocated.
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