Rashid Choudhury

(1932-1986)

Untitled (Two Women)

Footnotes

Provenance
Revolution Gallery, London;
Acquired from the collection of Matiur Rahman, Dhaka.

'Butterflies of my imagination will glide in the air. I did not feel satisfied with the usual oils and watercolours. As piano and organ are excellent musical instruments but not much effective for solo performances, there are typical mediums in the field of art which have their limitations. I was, therefore, looking for a medium through which I can fittingly depict men and nature of my motherland. My search has borne fruit at last, I found my destination in tapestry.'(Quoted in Abul Mansur, "Rashid Choudhury," in Rashid Choudhury (Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, 2003)

Born into a zamindar aristocratic family in rural Bengal, Choudhury was influenced by the various religions and cultures that peppered the Bengali landscape including Hinduism and Islam and folk and indigenous traditions. He commenced his education at the Government Art Institute of Dhaka, where he started off as a painter working with watercolours, gouache, tempera and oils, before moving to Spain and France in 1956 and 1960-1964 respectively to further his education. At the Central Escuela de Bellas Arted de San Fernando in Madrid, he studied sculpture and at Académie Julian and Beaux Arts in Paris, he focussed on sculpture, fresco and tapestry art. It was here, under the tutelage of Jean Lursate, 'the father of modern tapestry,' where Choudhury would settle on the medium he is most well known for.

Central to his artistic practice is his adept utilization of the tapestry medium as a canvas for cultural exchange and dialogue. Drawing upon his extensive travels and studies in Europe, where he immersed himself in the avant-garde art movements of the mid-20th century, Chowdhury developed a keen appreciation for the principles of abstraction and modernist experimentation. Yet, rather than merely replicating Western artistic styles, he sought to infuse these techniques with the vibrant aesthetic traditions of his homeland. Untitled (Two Women) is a fine example of this. There is a dynamic interplay of form, colour, and texture that evokes both the fluidity of Western abstraction and the intricate patterning of indigenous art. The 'two women' represented by vertical shapes, resemble bodies engaged in dance. Through a meticulous process of hand-weaving, Chowdhury achieves a remarkable synthesis of disparate visual languages, weaving together geometric shapes, organic forms, and cultural motifs with remarkable finesse.