This retrospective exhibition marks the 70th anniversary of the birth of Rafiqun Nabi, a figure of late modernism in Bangladesh. Loaned from various collections, the assorted works on display span a period of several decades and indicate an artistic practice centering on realist painting. Indeed, the artist's entire oeuvre is a testimony of his obsessive “quest for reality”.
The central motives of Nabi's painting are the land and its people, as shown in the many canvases narrating the stories of children, rickshaw whallas or fishermen at work. Nabi's artistic expression has always been attached to the reality of his native country, a characteristic that places his oeuvre in the line the first generation of Bangladeshi modernists such as Zainul Abedin or Qamrul Hassan.
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts