“I paint as a professional only to survive as I have no other source of making money. I had been a teacher at Chittagong University for almost 30 years. For what I have become today or what I have done, I owe it to the university,” he said.
A solo art exhibition of Murtaza opened at Gallery Kaya in Uttara of the capital at 5pm yesterday. M Sayeduzzaman, former senior public servant, inaugurated the exhibition in the presence of the octogenarian artist, who defied his ailments to attend the opening.
As an artist, I explore the heritage of Bangladesh and India, said Murtaza.
“I explore the social, cultural, political, historical and religious aspects of the two countries,” he said.
Murtaza said he was greatly influenced by European art in the 80s but an incident at the time radically changed his ideas.
“That time I went to Japan to attend an art festival and upon my return, I spent a lot of time in the libraries to study scriptures, myth and history,” he said.
The artist said he began mingling western art with native art after 1993.
“In this exhibition, I have some works based on that idea. Some works were done with oil pastels as my doctor asked me not to use oil because it would deteriorate my health,” he said.
“When I fell ill recently, I thought I have to survive because I have things to do. Even the doctor thought I would die but I managed to survive. You can say I wanted to survive because the earth is beautiful.
“It is likely that I am the only artist in this exhibition who portrayed renaissance outlook with the influence of impressionism. My art was greatly inspired by Bhabani Sen, a great Marxist theorist, who told me to depict the exploited people in my works when I was a student. This is why you would see that my works are figurative,” he added.
In the 60s, other artists began to do abstract arts or impressionism but I felt the urge to do something different, said Murtaza.
“I was determined to leave my marks in the world. I always inspired my students by saying that human beings were always at the centre of my works. I never drew natural scenes even when I was in Italy. My works involve the people who belong to the working class,” he said.
“I had to leave for Paris in June 1971 as my life was threatened. While in Paris, I drew pebbles inspired by Greek arts. At the time of the movement against the autocratic rule of Ershad, I did murals,” he added.
Organiser of the exhibition Gautam Chakrabarty said despite his age, Murtaja always showed an unmatched love for art.
“Even when he was in the hospital, he took a pen from the doctor and drew with that. This is an exhibition to respect his strength as an artist,” he added.