Mindscape, Syed Iqbal's 4th solo exhibition, puts together some earlier works from a series he titled Tears of Nature, and more recent works that form two new series-Mindscape and Our Women. Twenty five paintings from Tears of Nature were shown in an earlier exhibition. The present exhibition packs up from no. 26. Iqbal's main concern in Tears of Nature, as the title suggests, is the destruction and diminishment of nature. As cities expand, and 'civilization' takes up more and more open space consolidate its gains, ecology becomes the prime victim. As trees are felled, fields are turned into built up areas and water bodies filled up, nature's last frontier recedes further and further. A day will come when nothing will remain of the wilderness and wetlands that are so vital for human survival. Syed Iqbal is not and alarmist, but his projection of a future world devoid of nature is sobering enough to raise a few questions: Why do we have to destroy our natural world in order to build a mechanical and ruthless, functional civilization? What do we do with a sharply diminished and diminishing world? Not unexpectedly, Tears of Nature evokes childhood memories and a nostalgia for the green landscape Iqbal had left behind. He spent his childhood in Chittagong where the charming heights of Batali Hills, bamboo forests and large shade trees were more inspiring presences than any manmade structures. His paintings bring out the pain and the anguish of a feeling individual who has seen his world of green painted over with gray and black.

Minscape moves from the external world to a more interior zed world of personal feelings, fantasy and imagination. The paintings in this series are like a personal diary that record, in an unbridled manner, feelings of joy and happiness, anguish or anger. Sexual fantasies, jealousies, desires, memories of pain and pleaser-all jostle for a space. With semi abstract forms and occasional instruction of realistic, object (as well as human figure) the painting are done in strong colours suggesting their grounding in a world of intense feelings.

In contrast our women takes us to history and historical figures society and contemporary reality. The women who are portrayed - in a barely suggestive and often symbolic manner-represent both historical personalities and the social conditions that shaped them, made them or victimized them. There are two distinct types of women represented: those, like the revolutionary Pritilata Waddedar who left her won imprint on time, and those who simply became victims of a time gone wild. Pritilata has been a revolutionary fighter, a woman of great courage and talent, and a modern day Joan of Arc figure. She She is clearly Iqbal's ideal of creative female power. On the other end of the spectrum, however lies Yasmin, a village girl from Dinajpur who was raped and killed by highway policemen on duty. Yasmin represents the victim hood and helplessness of all women in a patriarchal society where male power often express itself in sexual and sado-masochial terms. Then there is Nurjahan, another village woman, from Sylhet, who was stoned to death by followers of a fatwa- giving mollah. Nurjahan remains a symbol of women's servitude in a society dominated by inequality, religious bigotry and intolerance. The present exhibition also includes some works done separately on different themes and personalities, such as 'Baishakh Carnival,' 'Dalai Lama,' 'Budda' etc. Syed Iqbal vi vidly remembers a film he saw, Kudan, made by a British filmmaker, in which the Lama was prominently portrayed. His paintings attempt to capture the charisma and enigma of a man who wields enormous spirtual power over his followers. The 'Buddha' paintings, in contrast, are multed, and more meditative. The paintings on Baishakh, the Bengali new year, revisit childhood sites of memory, and bring out the carnivalesque atmosphere that the occasion created-through meles (fairs) and general jubilation of the people. the works use strong, overlapping colours, textures and heavily worked spaces, and bold line drawings to evoke the right mood.

The present exhibition marks a new phase in Iqbal's career as a painter: he is mature, confident and highly verstile. Over the years, Iqbal has maintained a steady progress. He has always been an imaginative and sensitive painter. But the present exhibition also shows a thinking mind concerned with issue that we can only ignore at our peril. It is an impressive show-one of the best that has been mounted by any artist in the last few years in Dhaka.