Zainul Abedin

Summary

A twentieth-century artist who won a first class degree in art from Kolkata and studied at the

prestigious Slade School of Art in London. He was particularly moved by famine scenes in

1943, which he recorded. He was awarded the title 'Shilpacharya'in 1967.

More interested in drawing than studies!

Zainul Abedin was an artist of exceptional talent and international fame. He was born in

Kishoreganj, Mymensingh, on 29 December 1914. He was admitted to the Government

School of Art in Kolkata in 1933 and graduated with a first class degree in 1938. After

graduation he joined the same institution as a teacher.

As a young boy, Zainul was more interested in drawing than his studies. He would draw

pictures in his textbook during lessons. He was greatly inspired by the river Brahmaputra and

the surrounding countryside. This is reflected ina series of his watercolour drawings which

pay tribute to the river Brahmaputra. He earned the Governor's Gold Medal in 1938 for these

paintings in an all-India exhibition.

The Great Famine

In 1943 the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 killed about three million people. Zainul was

touched by the devastation of the Famine which was caused by the colonial policies and other

reasons during the World War II and drew a series of sketches depicting the misery. Though

Zainul had little material help to offer to the starving, helpless people, he paid his greatest

tribute to the famine victims through his famous famine sketches.' He drew the sketches on

cheap, brown packing paper with Chinese ink and a flat brush used for oil painting. This was

Zainul's way of showing the world what the starving and dying Bengal people were going

through.

The move to Dhaka and a new institute

After the partition of India in 1947, Zainul left Kolkata, came to East Pakistan and settled in

Dhaka. He joined a school as a drawing teacher.At that time there was very little artistic

activity in East Pakistan. He, along with some friends, tried to convince the government to

start an art institute. He was given the responsibility of establishing the Government Institute
of Arts and Crafts in Dhaka. It started on 30 September 1948 in two rooms of the National

Medical School. It was the first art school of East Pakistan and he was made the Principaldesignate of
the Institute. Eventually this institute grew in reputation and size to be known as

the Institute of Fine Arts

The Great Master of the Arts

In 1951, Zainul attended the Slade School of Art in London, for a two-year training

programme.' In 1959, his contributions were recognised by the highest award for creative

artists from the Government of Pakistan, Hilal-i-Imtiaz. He denounced the title in 1971 during

the War of Liberation. He was awarded an Honorary D. Litt. degree by the University of Delhi

in 1974. He was also a Visiting Professor of Fine Arts at Peshawar University in 1965 and in

Dhaka in 1973. He was appointed a National Professor of Bangladesh in 1974.

Zainul retired from the post of Principal of the Government Art College in 1967 and devoted

himself to painting. He was given the title, Shilpacharya, the Great Master of the Arts, in the

same year for his artistic and visionary qualities.

Scrolls

In 1970, he organised the nabannafestival at the ShilpakalaAcademy. He drew a 65-feet

long and 6 feet wide scroll called nabanna (in Chinese ink, watercolour and wax), in

celebration of the mass movement of 1969, in which he depicted the story of rural

Bangladesh in phases. He started it with the abundance of golden Bengal when people were

happy and in peace and went on to show how the same Bengal became impoverished under

the colonial rule and the Pakistan regime and finally reached a pitiable state of poverty.

In the same year, Zainul painted another scroll, the 30 feet long and 6 feet wide Manpura,

named after an island in the Bay of Bengal. This black ink drawing over wax outlines depicted

the devastation of the terrible cyclone of 1970.

Illustrating the constitution

Soon after the liberation of Bangladesh, Zainul was invited by the Government to illustrate the

Constitution of Bangladesh which he did along withthree other artists. They used folk art and

designs from nakshi kantha,the famous embroidered quilts made by rural women of

Bangladesh.
Galleries

In 1975, a year before his death, Zainul Abedin set up the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon and

the Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his own works in Mymensingh.

The Folk Art Museum was set up to preserve the rich but dying folk art of Bangladesh.

Features

One of the characteristics of Zainul Abedin's paintings is the black line. He has made use of

the line in many of his sketches including the Famine Sketches.He has painted in a wide

variety of styles. After his return from Slade School of Art, he began to draw in a new 'Bengali'

style, where folk forms with their geometric,sometimes semi-abstract representations, the

use of primary colours and lack of perspective were prominent features. Some of his well

known paintings are Dumka(watercolour 1951), Santals: Return(watercolour 1951), The

Rebel Crow(watercolour 1951), Two Women(gouache 1953), Painna's Mother(gouache

1953) and Face (oil painting 1971).

His last days

Zainul Abedin died of cancer on 28 May 1976. He drew his last painting, Two Faces,while he

was lying sick at the PG Hospital just before he died. He was buried in the campus of Dhaka

University, beside the Dhaka University mosque, with access from the Institute of Fine Arts

which he had founded.