“Castles in the Sky,” Sohrab Rahman Khan’s first solo exhibition, begins on Friday and will run for three days. Sadly, the exhibition, which he was preparing for, occurs after his demise, as he passed away very suddenly on the June 20 this year, at only 38 years of age.
The exhibition will be held at the Bengal Art Lounge in Gulshan, from noon. There is also a small memorial service for Sohrab at 6pm. The name for the exhibition is taken from one of his favourite songs.
Sohrab’s paintings are characterised by bold, swift strokes and brilliant colours, which represent the energetic manner in which he poured himself into his work. Many are unfinished as he would paint canvas after canvas enthusiastically, intending to apply finishing touches at a later date that, unfortunately, never came.
His works include large vivid canvases as well as small delicate watercolour drawings. He painted, among other things, the natural world, street scenes, people, architecture, animals and cosmic phenomena. Elephants are a particular favourite of his, and they occur in settings, as motifs or by themselves.
But his distinctness as an artist is most apparent in his surreal series, which include charcoal sketches, pen drawings, watercolours and oil paintings of images that capture fantasy, imagination, illusion and also social commentary.
In a series that includes both the macabre and the comical, Sohrab tries to express social, spiritual and emotional dimensions of the human condition, and succeeds in translating his eccentricity into images that remain faithful to the magical, fantastical quality of his art.
Sohrab Rahman Khan painted mostly for pleasure, and often as a meditation. Yet his output was constant and he painted throughout his life, wherever he lived.
It is to his credit that he was entrusted to use his creativity and his talents for The Strand Theatre in Delaware, Ohio while at university in Ohio Wesleyan. The Strand Theatre is one of the oldest running cinema halls in the States, built in 1916.
Sohrab painted an exciting and imaginative creation on the ceiling in the ticketing area of the theatre, with elephant motifs and a vivid orange sky. His work was appreciated by the theatre management, OWU and the local population, and covered in the news media in 1998.
Sohrab Rahman Khan had many sides to him and wanted to stretch himself to explore all his talents. He found great pleasure in teaching after becoming a University teacher, and proved to be a very good mentor. He had a passion for cars and for driving and he took every opportunity to enjoy both.
He enjoyed designing inventions that would improve society and wanted to create a Bangla superhero and graphic novel series that would instill ideals.
He was concerned about fellow human beings, could not tolerate injustice and social inequality, and he felt he had a responsibility towards them. To these ends he committed himself, and art became a private endeavour.