Tajuddin’s paintings unlock the truth about the universe

I have known preeminent artist Tajuddin Ahmed for more than twenty years as an abstract expressionist. I am very deeply impressed by the range of his works, his compositions and the way he presents his inner thoughts and his surrounding ambiances. Tajuddin has worked with different mediums and his mode of expression is pure abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism had been developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. I think Tajuddin is a very outstanding painter because of his sincerity, in-depth observation of topics and above all his unpretentious approaches.

Tajuddin completed his BFA in Drawing and Painting in 1980 from the Institute of Fine Arts (Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). He is one of the foremost painters of the late-1970s who began his formal career as a semi-abstract painter and his themes include urban landscape, mysterious nature, longing and expressions of emotions. During the late 1980s, Tajuddin appeared to us as a true naturist painter. At that time, he completely took inspiration from nature. That inspiration is evident in his paintings that delineate the splendour of both rural and urban landscape. At that time, his mode of expression was semi-realistic with a touch of impressionism and post-impressionism.

With the passage of time, Tajuddin has refined himself. He transformed himself as a semi-abstract painter after the 1990s and set off to interpret metropolitan community rigorously through thematic treatment. He intimately observed the city’s unplanned urbanisation, ruined richness of heritage, transports, changing socio-political and economic conditions. For deeper inspiration and bringing variation in his theme centric works, the artist fervently painted Old Dhaka with its vibrant activities, downtrodden people in their daily chores, rickshaws and their hapless but dauntless drivers, light posts, narrow alleys, condensed habitations, wrecked buildings etc. He also depicted people in masses busy with their different approaches and aided by sufferings, torments, bliss and ecstasies. He occupied himself mostly with oil medium and the medium gave him a true sense of persistence. As the paint is a beautiful medium, it can attain buttery glosses, thin luminescent glazes, and rich colours like none other.

Tajuddin’s paintings from this period (afterwards he also worked on the same topics) also highlight wheels, prostitution and familiar features of the city. Gradually figures died out in his works and various kinds of forms, symbols, textures, oval, triangular and rectangular shapes and lines took over the canvas. Geometric structures, architectural and structural views give a new perspective to his works. Adjoining columns, slabs, walls, broken pillars, elephant forms compass, broken doors, windows and others are also apparent in his works. His canvas is truly representative of our modern urban milieu.

After the late 1990s, Tajuddin completed his artistic journey to become a pure abstract expressionist painter. His paintings delved deep into pure forms, compositions and hues which have been used according to the space. Sometimes he played with neat forms and compositions and time and again, occupied himself with healthy curved horizontal and vertical lines, straight lines, elliptical, non- elliptical shapes, cubic forms and rigid structure. He played with space and sometimes the space played a vital role for many of his paintings. His works are very expressive due to the effective use of space in his paintings during this period. During the time, many of his paintings feature complex compositions, textural strength and thickness of colours. A number of his paintings look neat and tranquil as the works focus on colours and their various layers. The colours are azure, crimson, red, black, white, yellow, cobalt blue, yellow ochre, purple ochre, burnt sienna, umber and emerald green. The painter has played with texture and illusion for surface effects, as his surfaces look more impressive and appealing.

Suddenly, Tajuddin migrated to Toronto in 2008. After migration, Tajuddin felt that location plays a significant role in an artist’s life. One can easily get affected by the environment, cultural and social setting. The artist feels alienated in Toronto but the solitude gives him a chance to explore himself thoroughly. His art tries to replicate nature’s colour synchronisation in his works. The space that is found to adorn his works belonging to the most important forms, take precedence by position rather than by perspective, resulting in abstract relationships.

The recent works are to some extent different from Tajuddin’s earlier works, as the painter gives emphasis more on varied tiny objects, different forms of myth, hazy and semi nude-figures, flower base, hollow forms, varied symbolic patters, greenery, amorphous forms, thick and rough textures. The current changes are mainly technical and sometimes it seems that the artist is primarily concerned with applying colours and mingling forms as well as textural intensity in his paintings. Tajuddin’s present works also feature mellow texture and soothing surface that are malleable and appealing. The paintings represent emotion and sentiment in a manner that portends to outline that the artist wants to be universally understood.

Tajuddin’s themes and approaches are closely connected to physiological experiments. He has also added illusion and emotion to his paintings. His use of colours is thick, expressive and nostalgic.

Over the years Tajuddin has kept pace with technical and methodical advancements and has used these to further develop himself as a creative interpreter of nature and insight of human being. He has been symbolically recording every aspect of life in his surroundings, thereby validating his keen observation skills for studying socio-economic, political and cultural lives in all their manifestations.

The writer is an art critic and cultural curator