Jun 07, 2022

Rokeya Sultana

Exhibition of works and launch of monograph at Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi

This knee-buckling collection of more than forty years of Rokeya Sultana's art, which is most known for dealing with themes of women, sexuality, and feminism, should be it if you only have time to visit one outstanding gallery show this time.
The Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) is showcasing the works of noted Bangladeshi artist Rokeya Sultana, In Delhi and Kolata, to commemorate 50 years of India-Bangladesh friendship and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's independence. However, this exhibition was scheduled to open on October 23rd of last year, but due to communal violence during Durga Puja in Bangladesh against the country's Hindu minority, the Indian government chose to postpone it. Despite the fact that Sultana had previously been shown in India, the news of the exhibition's cancellation must have demoralised both her and the art enthusiasts. However, this exhibition was on display from 6 to 26 July 2022 at the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi, and it will be replicated in Kolkata in 2022 from July 7 to July 20 and in Dhaka by Bangladesh Foundation, in 2022. Bengal Foundation has launched a monograph in commemoration of this historic show, which was created in close collaboration with the Rukeya and there were 120 to 130 works of her artwork on display.

Through her work, she represents the two nations' common cultural traditions. She appears to be interested in sensuality and feminism. Her depictions of suffering, loss, gender, and natural environs and landscapes are as many universal reflections of our time as they are windows into a very intimate world. Rokeya Sultana's four-decade-long artistic career is celebrated through a selection of works from her most well-known figural series, "Madonna" and "Relations," as well as her abstract interpretation of the Bangladeshi landscape and natural world in the "Earth Water Air sequence" and the print series "Fata Morgana."
Sultana portrays the common woman navigating the world in the 'Madonna' series (early - mid-nineties), which is named after the American music queen; highlighting the complexities of motherhood and the mother's battle in the difficult circumstances of her cosmopolitan lifestyle. She's been on a journey for silence, profundity, and poetry in recent years. Her use of flowing and translucent colours, planned accidental effects, figures created in lines, and free-floating organic forms reflect a deeper awareness of nature's richness and human life cycle within it. She presents metaphysical notions as women in contact with nature who guide the next generation, becoming the key to the world, using symbolic personal language. According to her, the lady in her work is usually adorned in a magenta sari to symbolise that she is conventional on the outside but rebellious from the inside. Sultana believes that "Magenta is a colour that reflects the power of the feminine soul to overcome negativity. It is on the verge of becoming an aggressive form of red, yet it is gentler, more playful, and more pleasant. Hence, every girl and every woman is Madonna."
The 'Fata Morgana' series contained 40 abstract and semi-abstract artworks, with the name derived from a sort of ocean mirage. Unlike the 'Madonna' series, which had a well-defined plot, this one experimented with aberrations. Several colourful multi-layer prints were created using a time-consuming woodcut and pressure-point printmaking process.

I was so impressed by such artworks because each one tried to tell its very own unheard story, but there was something disturbing about the exhibition, and that was the display. The presentation and display of these exquisite artworks were unsatisfactory, and the lighting on the artworks was extremely poorly focused, causing a disruption between art enthusiasts and the artworks; however, it may be shown in a more appealing manner in the future. Aside from certain flaws in the context of display (which, for such a prominent international artist as well as for a young artist, must be effectively curated), there is some additional positive about this exhibition that this kind of exhibition promotes artists and the nation by promoting art and culture and Sultana's exhibitions in Delhi and Kolkata will bring people from both nations closer together.  Sultana's work, as well as the monograph Rokeya Sultana, will pique the curiosity of art lovers and collectors.

To conclude this exhibition review, I am composing a  brief introduction of her and sharing Rukeya's vibrant artworks, which depict women, sexuality, and feminism.

Sultana Rukeya (1958 - Present)
Sultana was born in 1958 in Chittagong, while the nation was still known as East Pakistan. It would not become independent until 1971. Rokeya Sultana is a highly sought-after Bangladeshi artist with a really cosmopolitan perspective. She is an acclaimed and award-winning artist, printmaker, and educator who studied at Dhaka's Institute of Fine Arts and Santiniketan's Vishwa Bharati University there Her mentors were legendary artists Safiuddin Ahmed, Mohammad Kibria, Somnath Hore, Lalu Prasad Shaw, and Sanat Kar, are regarded equally in Bangladesh and India. She experimented with many tales and straddled several mediums under their guidance, each one a unique representation of her own moods, feelings, and intuitions.She was awarded a resident fellowship at L'Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut in Paris. Rokeya Sultana's art is a reflection of loss, displacement, and impermanence in life. She is also a Fulbright scholar. During her early years, she was impacted by the violent 1971 revolution. She talks about women and the power of intuition and imagination, which may be a feminine trait that leads to universal truths. Sultana has won several awards and scholarships, including a 2012 prestigious Fullbright grant for a 9-month artist’s residency at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It was there that she learned the pressure print technique used in the ‘Fata Morgana’ series. She is married to former Bangladeshi cricketer Omar Khaled Rumi and flits between her studios in Sydney and Dhaka. Rumi, apart from being one of Bangladesh’s top-order batsmen, was also a musician at one point in his career. She has exhibited her works across countries such as Denmark, Egypt, Turkey, Taiwan, Nepal, Korea, France, Iran, Jordan, and Pakistan at centres like Australia’s Blacktown Arts Centre and Bangladesh’s Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts.

Review by Gaurav Kumar