Zainul Abedin-Shilpacharya, the great master of the Arts

Zainul Abedin Born at Kishoreganj in Mymensingh, Zainul Abedin is one of the pioneers in the modern art movement in Bangladesh. Of all his creations, the famine series of 1940s, which was exhibited in 1944, were his most critically acclaimed significant work. The thoughtful use of colours and bold strokes in his paintings, mixed with the great sense of compassion for distressed people, made him earn the title- Shilpacharya, the great master of the Arts.

Zainul Abedin (b. 1914, Mymensingh, then India, now Bangladesh; d. 1976) was a painter, cultural organizer and pedagogue who is considered as the founding figure of Bangladeshi modern art. A Muslim teacher of the Calcutta Art School, Abedin moved to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) after the partition of India. Here he established art education as part of the public school system and founded with others, what is today the Faculty of Fine Arts, Dhaka University. An activist defending Bengali culture, Abedin was engaged in both the Bengali Language Movement and the Bangladesh Liberation War.

Abedin developed a social realist style, often focusing on struggle and suffering as in his acclaimed “Famine Sketches”, which powerfully documented the Bengal Famine of 1943-1944. He also showed interest in marginalized communities, painting, for example, the Indigenous Santhal people, or refugees in the Palestinian camps of Syria and Jordan.

Abedin received many awards and accolades during his life including an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Delhi, India (1974). His work is exhibited in a dedicated gallery at the National Museum of Bangladesh. Bengal Foundation has published or co-published several monographs and catalogues on his work, among them “Great Masters of Bangladesh – Zainul Abedin” (Skira, 2012), is the only comprehensive survey to date.

“My ambition was not to be a great artist, but I have always wanted to be a man like any other man, and I have always tried to live in the society of man as one of its ordinary members.”

“I drew the famine series almost feverishly. Why did I do that? Why did I at all draw those sketches? It was from a sense of anger and of protest that I sketched the famine scenes. It was my statement against the situation, terrible human sufferings, which I thought and still think was created by man, man-causing sufferings for man. I only tried to record my opinion and feelings.”

“I had entered into the world of painting because of an uncontrollable pressure from within when I was still very young.”

Source: The quotes were taken from Zainul Abedin’s address on occasion of being awarded an Honorary DLitt degree by the University of Delhi, India in its convocation in 1974.
This lecture in English was drafted by Nazrul Islam based on ideas orally expressed in Bangla by the artist.