Bangladesh, Oct. 2 -- efore an artist learns how to draw, he simply draws. There are no rules about composition, no concern about whether an image is original, and little anxiety about what another person might think. Iqbal Bahar Chy often thinks about that freedom when he works.

Years of formal training have taught him technique, discipline and the language of art. Yet he continues to search for something that existed before all those lessons: the instinct to begin without knowing exactly where the work will go.

That instinct has shaped much of Chy's practice. Primarily a printmaker, although increasingly engaged with painting, he often begins with a small form, an object, a feeling or something familiar from everyday life. He does no...