Baseer, Murtaja

Baseer, Murtaja (1932-2020) painter, numismatist and coin collector, activist of language movement. Murtaja Baseer was born on 17 August, 1932 in a Muslim family in Ramna area of Dhaka University. His father was a renowned linguist of the subcontinent, gyanatapas Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah and mother Morguba Khatun. He was the youngest child of his parents. His father named him Abul Khair Murtaja Bashirullah.

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Murtaja Baseer

From 1939 to 1945 he studied at Nabakumar Institution in Dhaka. After studying from 1946 to 1948 at Coronation Institution, Bogra, he passed the matriculation examination. In 1949, Murtaja Baseer started studying fine arts as a second-batch student of Dhaka Government Institute of Arts established in 1948 (now Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University). Artists like Murtaja Baseer, Rashid Chowdhury, Qayyum Chowdhury, and Abdur Razzaq were admitted there in the adverse family and social conditions of that time.

In 1954, after completing five years of art education, he passed in the first division. He started his career as a drawing teacher in Nawabpur Government High School, Dhaka in 1955. He then obtained a Teacher’s Training Certificate (Art Appreciation) from Ashutosh Museum, Kolkata. From 1956 to 1958 and later, studied painting and fresco for a year at the Accademiadelle Belle Arti in Florence, Italy, funded by his father.

The style of simplification of figures and minimal use of color attracted him. In Florence, he painted ordinary people he met in the wilderness or on the way. He painted scenes of accordion players, gypsies and their performance, and mother and daughter returning from market. Before leaving Florence, Murtaja Baseer had his first solo exhibition at the ‘La Permanente’ gallery from 29 March to 11 April in 1958. It contained fourteen oil paintings during his stay in Florence. In 1958, Bashir jointly formed an artist group called ‘Movimento Primordio’ (Movement of Primitives) with the Italian painter Rapisrangi and sculptor Madonia and held a group exhibition in Empoli, near Florence, from 13 to 25 April 1958. After spending two years in Italy, he returned home at the end of 1958.

Later, he studied mosaic and printmaking at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Bozart and Académie Goetz in Paris from 1971 to 1973, funded by his brother Dr. Abul Bayan Mujtaba Naqiyullah.

In 1973, Murtuza Baseer joined Chittagong University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Fine Arts and retired as a Professor from there in 1998.

Murtuza Baseer participated in the language movement of 1952 and on the eventful of 21 February 1952, he took the wounded Language hero Abul Barkat and some others to hospital. He was one of those who hoisted the black flag on the roof of Kala Bhavan [Arts Building]of the Dhaka University on 22nd February. He painted a linocut in 1952 titled ‘Bloody 21st’ on the events of 21 February, which was first printed in 1953 in a collection titled ‘Ekushey February’ edited by Hasan Hafizur Rahman. ‘Bloody 21st’- considered to be the first film on the Language Movement. In 1952, Subhas Mukhopadhyay’s magazine ‘Porichoy’ published his poem titled ‘Parbe Naa’ on the Language Movement from Calcutta, and ‘Ora Pran Dila’ was reprinted in Ekushey’s memoir published from Calcutta.

On 16 March, 1971, he took part as leader in of the ‘Swa-Dhi-Na-Ta’ procession from Shaheed Minar to Bahadur Shah Park under the initiative of Bangladesh Charu and Karushilpi Parishad. Before this, on 11 March, 1971, he and others boycotted the exhibition of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) artists organized by the then Ministry of Information and Scientific Affairs of Pakistan.

In March 1971, he called for the rejection of titles bestowed by the government of Pakistan in protest against the killings of the people of East Pakistan. In 1950, during publicity campaign called by Communist Party for observing the ‘Free Area Day’ in Hajong of Mymensingh, Telangana in India and Kakadwik in South 24 Parganas of West Bengal, he was arrested and imprisoned for five months in the Dhaka Central Jail. In 1982, when he was the president of the Chittagong University Teachers’ Association he led the strike called against the dictatorial rule of Ershad.

In his novel ‘Ultramarine’ various struggles, politics, culture, literature, crisis in Bengali society had been portrayed, and reflected feelings and observations the country’s Language Movement. While the Pakistanis claimed that these Bengali traditions had been inherited from the Hindus of India, he showed that these are not and in fact all these are derived from history of the motherland. ‘Koyekti Rajnigandha’ is a brilliant example of his short stories.

He was a member of the Fukuoka Asian Cultural Prize Committee in Japan from 1992 to 2004, member of Board of Trustees of Chittagong University Museum, member of Arts and Humanities Research Evaluation Committee of Bangladesh University Grants Commission and Commonwealth Scholarship Selection Committee.

He was a lifetime member of Bangla Academy and Bangladesh Asiatic Society. In 1975, he received the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Award. He was awarded with the ‘Ekushey Padak’ in 1980 and the ‘Swadhinata Padak’ in 2019. He had been conferred also with numerous awards by various organizations.

‘Transparency’, ‘Deyal’, ‘Shaheed Title’, ‘Jyoti’, ‘Kalema Tayeba’ ‘Cantos’ and ‘Pakha’ are notable series painted by artist Murtaja Baseer. He was the originator of an art style called ‘abstract realism’. In addition, he had left his mark of individuality in the amalgamation of Eastern and Western art traditions in figurative works. In particular, traces of that combination can be found in his paintings of women from the nineties of the last century. In addition, in 1968, he painted a mural on the main building of Bangladesh Bank titled ‘Money Development’.

In 1974, adjacent to Shaheed Minar of Rajshahi University he crafted a mural titled ‘Akshay Bot’ by cutting bricks in memory the martyrs of the Liberation War. In 1996, he painted a mural titled ‘Shraddanjali’ on the tiles of the Bangladesh Bank building in Sylhet. Apart from painting, he has worked in various media including murals, drawings, prints.

His books, translated works and seleted essays include ‘Glass Bird Song’ (1969), ‘Galpasamagra’ (2008); Poems ‘Esrenu’ (1976), ‘Tomakei Khot’ (1979), ‘Eso Ferye Anasuya’ (1985), ‘Saday Elegy’ (2017), ‘Ritbangya Ishadraf, Ridharah Kharhab’ (2008); the novel ‘Ultramarine’ (1979); ‘2 Evenings with Mita’/‘Amitrakshar’ (2008), ‘Murtaja Baseer: Murta O Murta’ (2001), ‘Amar Jeeban O Oran’ (2014) and ‘Chitracharcha’ (2020).

In addition, several of his research articles on pre-Mughal era coins were published in the ‘Journal of the Numismatic Society of India’ of Banaras University. He wrote the story and screenplay of the Urdu film ‘Caroan’ in 1963. He was the screenwriter, art director and chief assistant director of Humayun Kabir’s Nadi O Nari in 1964. In same year, he served as the Art Director of the Urdu film Kayase Kahu. Murtaja Baseer married Amina Bashir in 1962. He has two daughters and one son. Murtaja Baseer was suffering from various complicated diseases for a long time.

He died on 15 August, 2020 while undergoing treatment for Covid-19. [Sabbir Ahmed]