Artist Sabyasachi Hazra’s exhibition titled as ‘Brahmi to Bangla’ is being exhibited from June 14th, 2022, at La Galerie of Alliance Française de Dhaka. At the same time, his third publication “A-In the Quest of Bangla Typography”, whose main theme is to discover the practical and aesthetic aspects of standard Bengali letters from typographic perspective, is also being published and exhibited.
During the opening ceremony, artist Nisar Hossain, the Dean, Faculty of Fine Art, and Professor, Department of Drawing & Painting, University of Dhaka and Shishir Bhattacharjee, Professor at Department of Drawing & Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka, architect and film maker Enamul Karim Nirjhar, Mominul Islam, Managing Director & CEO of IPDC Finance Limited, and François Grosjean, Director of Alliance Française de Dhaka will be present among the guests.
Languages evolve, so do typefaces. The shape and texture of the letters are transformed through time, technology, medium, application, practical understanding, and aesthetic experiments. With the evolution of technology, the scope of handwriting is getting limited in the quotidian life. But the practice of handwriting and calligraphy is extraordinarily crucial for the artists and designers. The standard shape of printable Bengali typeface has been adopted from the previously used handwritings. In order to know, understand, and assimilate the standard form of Bengali letters to practice with the myriad opportunities of typography, this very attempt is taken.
With the exhibition ‘Brahmi to Bangla’ and the publication “A-In the Quest of Bangla Typography”, Sabyasachi mainly presented his experience of understanding the evolution of Bengali letters to the young artists and the eager audience. He hopes the young artists will carry forward this quest and will fulfill the shortcomings of this publication in future.
This publication and exhibition are presented at the crucial juncture of the golden jubilee of Bangladesh, the seventieth anniversary of language movement and bicentennial of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the torch bearer in shaping modern Bengali language.
Sabyasachi Hajra said, “The content of the book is the printed Bangla fonts. The book mainly shows the journey of the standard Bengali fonts. I am deeply inspired by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. I am dedicating this book and exhibition to the memory of all language martyrs of 1952 and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. ”
Rahul Anand said, “I have witnessed the journey of Sabyasachi Hazra very closely. I hope this book will be included as a textbook. “
Afzal Hossain said, “There is a group of people in the world who are creative, who can see everything differently. In such a grave time, someone is working on the beauty of fonts. We are proud of it, and we are glad. ”Enamul Karim Nirjhar said, “Although many times various initiatives have been taken on the use of the Bangla script, none of them has seen the light of day. This great work of Sabyasachi Hazra will encourage others to work with Bangla fonts. ”
The exhibition will continue till Saturday, June 25th, 2022 from 3 pm to 9 pm daily. The book is jointly published by Kathaprokash and Nokta and IPDC Finance Limited is supporting to organize the exhibition.