Habib, Kazi Hasan

Habib, Kazi Hasan (1949-1988) painter. Kazi Hasan Habib was born on 25 December 1949 at village Umedpur in Jessore district. Kazi Hasan Habib's schooling was done at Bogra, Rajshahi, Khulna and Jessore. While studying at MM College at Jessore he came over to Dhaka in 1967 and got admitted at Government Fine Arts College and graduated in arts in 1972. Kazi Hasan Habib lived for only 39 years but left his mark of talent as a painter. He held three art exhibitions in Dhaka – in 1982, 1985 and 1988. The second exhibition was of exceptional nature. It displayed 21 of his oils painted to depict the themes of poems of 21 poets of Bangladesh. This exhibition brought out his attachment to poetry and proved the unity of his being a painter and a poet. In 1988 he held at Bangla Academy a solo exhibition of his pottery paintings that depicted the eternal image and tradition of rural Bangladesh. He added a new dimension to this medium of folk painting that is linked with the faith, perception and expectations of the common people. He also participated in a number of national and international exhibitions between 1970 and 1985.

He expressed his artistic perceptions in a variety of ways. He used the mediums of water-colour, oil, acrylic, enamel and pastel in his paintings. He did pictograph through etching. He painted posters and showed skill in sketch work.

Kazi Hasan Habib made significant contribution in painting book covers. In recognition to this he received National Book Centre prize five times – in 1979, 1981, 1983, 1984 and 1986. His creativity was not limited to painting. He wrote a number of poems of considerable merit. A year after his death a collection of his poems – Nirbachito Drishtir Labonney (1989) was published. His poems created paintings the way his paintings created poems.

Kazi Hasan Habib was a person committed to life and the society. His closeness to left politics deepened this commitment. This social awareness is amply reflected in his poems and paintings. He was a painter who loved nature. Although he spent a major part of his life in the capital city of Dhaka he never forgot the nature he knew in his childhood. This is why his paintings and poems again and again bowed to nature. He died on 25 December 1988 from cancer. [Syed Azizul Huq]