'Forerunners Rashid Choudhury, Murtaja Baseer, Debdas Chakraborty – their pedagogy and modernist approach' opens at Bengal Shilpalay

On the occasion of the 50 years of Bangladesh's independence, HSBC and Bengal Foundation jointly organised the exhibition 'Forerunners Rashid Choudhury, Murtaja Baseer, Debdas Chakraborty – their pedagogy and modernist approach'. 

The curator, leading pedagogue and contemporary visual artist Dhali Al Mamoon, enquires into the ways in which Rashid Choudhury, Murtaja Baseer and Debdas Chakraborty foregrounded new modernist thinking that resisted conventional categorisation, setting new idioms and parameters in keeping with the politics of their time.

The exhibition seeks to explore the contexts, trajectories, and interpretations that characterise fifty years of institutional art practices in Chattogram.

The multiple themes that the three artists explored by working tirelessly in different media, and by continually evolving and questioning their own position and practice may constitute one of the richest bodies of knowledge, pedagogical resources and art-making currently in Bangladesh.

Comprising of paintings, prints, drawings, tapestries, audio and video material, books and memorabilia, drawn from several institutional and private collections, the organisers hope that the show will invite debates about art-making and modernist teachings in the country, adding to the overall richness and diversity of social and artistic trajectories in the Bangladeshi art scene.

The Governor of Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir inaugurated the exhibition yesterday, at Bengal Shilpalay in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. The show is open to all, and can be viewed every day from 3 to 8 PM until 18 June, except on Sundays.