Mohammad Kibria

Acquired from an exhibition of paintings at Lions Clubs International by Mr. Mezbah Ur Rahman, Dacca, 1967

Acquired from the above, 1971

Thence by descent

Mr. Mezbah Ur Rahman Chowdhury (1934 - 1996) was an eminent Bangladeshi naval architect and engineer who lived and worked in Japan. He often visited Dacca (now Dhaka) and acquired the present lot on one of his visits.

Dacca, Lions Clubs International, Exhibition of Paintings, Graphics and Ceramics, 1967

“His use of colour, space and texture, his formal and technical innovations – all these remain important signposts to the road of modern art in Bangladesh.” (Syed Manzoorul Islam quoted in M. Phoutrides, States of Legibility: Mohammad Kibria’s Calligraphic Modernism, 1950-1970, University of Washington, Seattle, 2019, p. 25)

Born in Bengal, Mohammed Kibria studied under the Bangladeshi master Zainul Abedin while attending the University of Calcutta and eventually moved to Dacca, which would become his adopted home. Kibria temporarily left Dacca for further education in 1959, spending several years at the Tokyo University of the Arts. This experience would have an enormous impact on his practice.

'When he returned, he brought with him sheaves of etchings, lithographs and other graphic prints which were all utterly abstract, in a Japanese way.' (S. Amjad Ali, Painters of Pakistan, National Book Foundation, Islamabad, 1995, p. 312)

The present lot was painted in 1967, just five years after his return to Bangladesh, and illustrates how Kibria embraced the minimalist and abstract principles of Japanese art. The canvas is subdivided into a patchwork of geometric forms rendered in various cool tones, with Kibria generating an array of textures through his inventive manipulation of paint. Dating to the critical period of his career when he discovered his mature style, Untitled demonstrates the powers of abstraction that earned Kibria a reputation as a pioneer of modernism in Bangladesh.