Jogen Chowdhury’s lecture at Bengal Shilpalaya

Art & Culture Report :
Internationally reputed veteran Indian artist Jogen Chowdhury expressed his thoughts at a lecture session held at the Bengal Shilpalaya Café in the city’s Dhanmondi area recently.
Artist Jogen Chowdhury spoke of his engagement with fine arts, his incipient stage, his days at Government College of Art and Crafts in Kolkata, a growing sense of a relationship between life and art, society and the individual in his lecture.
As an artist, Jogen believes that everybody must be conscious of his/her works, time and environments. He or she must choose the subject and the way to depict it before producing the creative outcome.
While replying to a question from the audience Jogen Chowdhury said, “For an artist like me who has been working for more than five decades, the development and trajectory was a long, conflicted and kaleidoscopic one.”
Speaking of his works, the artist said that he has always made an attempt to express himself and his world.
His making out of himself and understanding of the world has changed over time, which has reflected as noticeable and determining changes in his works.
The artist, besides sharing these thoughts, also joyfully spoke of his childhood experiences in his ancestral home where his father was a landlord and a casual artist too.
Veteran Bangladeshi artist Qayyum Chowdhury and Indian art critic Arun Ghosh also spoke on the occasion. Noted artist Rafiqun Nabi and noted educationist emeritus professor Anisuzzaman were also present as audience on the occasion.
It may be mentioned that the Bangladeshi-born Indian artist, Jogen Chowdhury, has come to Bangladesh for a visit to his familial home at Kotalipara in Faridpur. n