SM Sultan’s solo exhibition at Bengal Gallery

Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts in Dhanmondi is to organise a three-week solo exhibition titled “Unseen Splendour”, of drawings by Bangladeshi master artist SM Sultan (1924 – 94). A bohemian and mystic, the iconic painter delved deep into rural life, especially fishermen, peasants, labourers and their simple lives. His figures are muscular and dominant.The exhibition will inaugurate on September 21 and will continue till October 11.The works are from the personal collection of Professor Abul Kashem Joardar, former teacher of Michael Madhusudan Dutt College, Jessore. The collection is the outcome of a long lasting friendship between Kashem Joardar and SM Sultan from the 1950s till Sultan’s death in 1994.Eminent artist Qayyum Chowdhury will inaugurate the exhibition as chief guest. Cultural activist Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, Matiur Rahman, editor of Daily Prothom Alo, art collector Rokeya Quader, Muhammad Aziz Khan, Chairman of Summit Group and art critic Mainuddin Khaled will be present as special guests at the inauguration.At the exhibition, a number of sketches and watercolours will be displayed. The drawings done in pencil are mostly from a study of faces, but those done in charcoal have strong and profound lines. Human figures, animals, birds, flowers, nude, semi-nude figures and women in varied moods — animated as well as inanimated, are the recurring features at the exhibition. The exhibition shows Sultan with a mastery of drawing, and an appreciation of the charms of Golden Bengal.