Every artist, no matter their medium, is affected by major events unfolding in front of them. They take what they see and put it into their writings, their music, their films, their paintings. Human tragedy on a grand scale, while devastating, often marks a creative turning point in a culture – and one LIC artist can attest to this firsthand.
“I was affected deeply by Katrina,” said Anowar Hossain, whose series of paintings on the destructive hurricane will be displayed in his annual solo exhibition. “When I started the project, I saw what had happened with fresh eyes, and what I saw was something that wasn’t there before.”
It was with this new vision that Hossain decided to tackle the Katrina project – a project that, at different times, evoked feelings of deep sadness and furious anger from the artist.
“Artists are not good at laughing,” he said. “Our work shows what we are feeling. If I am happy, I’m going to paint happy; but the best work – my best work – comes when I am not happy.”
Hossain came to the U.S. in the 1980s from Bangladesh and, once here, he became involved in the flourishing New York art community through his study and training at the School of Visual Arts and The Art Students League of New York.
He was born into a family of artists and scholars and was strongly influenced by the Bengali creative community, which includes poet, writer and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, filmmaker Satyajit Ray and musician Ravi Shankar.
“Everything we do in our life has a result and we have to remember this,” he said, as he considered the mark left behind by the artists mentioned above.
And each mark left by an artist represents a particular moment in their life. These moments may have been influenced by years of experience, but they are still representative of something that Hossain simplifies as “interesting moments.”
For him, it’s the moment of inspiration, but more than that, it’s the moment the artist decides to stop messing with a painting and declare it a finished product. Hossain had some trouble declaring anything finished when he first started painting – this knowledge of when to stop, he said, comes with age and experience.
“When I was younger I couldn’t paint abstract because I didn’t know when to stop. I’ve had many paintings that I ruined because I just kept going,” he said. “As you grow older, brain capacity grows and you become more confident. Now that I’m older, I see more and I learned how to stop.”
Age gave Hossain the discipline and experience he needed to tackle the subject matter of his Katrina project. The images of dead bodies, crying mothers and absolute destruction are scenes that Hossain couldn’t process as a young man, and he certainly couldn’t paint it abstractly before he fully matured.
He uses many religious images in his Katrina work, but those images exist almost as ghosts in his work, hovering over the confusion and humanity of that bayou nightmare. Classic American images – flags, presidents, money – appear as well.
“The area, mostly known as Katrina, is a lost area,” he said. “The images made me angry and the anger shows in the colors and tones. I needed to grow up to create these paintings.”
Along with experience and an expanded repertoire, age brought a family to Hossain’s life. He lives in Jackson Heights with his wife and two sons, and supports them by restoring antiques and selling some of his paintings.
“Weird sells,” Hossain admits. “Weird sells much more than beauty.”
Hossain’s Katrina project opens November 6 and runs until December 6 at the LIC Arts Center at 44-02 23rd Street. For more information, call 718-415-4594 or log on to www.anowarhossain.com and www.anowarart.com.
