modern art the geographical area that constitutes today's
Bangladesh did not witness organised art activities in the
18th or 19th centuries, in the sense of having art schools or
artist groups, or even professional artists who, like the
engravers of Battala or patuas of Kalighat in Calcutta, would
pursue a particular art activity. True, there were block
printers engaged in the textile and handloom trade, and sign
painters in urban areas. There may have also been painters
under nawab or zamindar patronage who did portraits and
conversation pieces. There were sculptors and idol makers too,
but they worked independently or for small, family groups.
Very little of these art works survive today to give us even a
glimpse of our art in the preceding centuries, let alone a
comprehensive understanding of our artistic heritage.
It was not until an art institute was set up in Dhaka in 1948
that an art tradition began to evolve in Bangladesh. The
importance of the Art Institute in the cultural life of
Bangladesh cannot be overemphasised. For the last 50 years, it
has worked not simply as an institution imparting art
education but also as a cultural centre for Bengalis,
functioning as a force for cultural revival and regeneration.
The Institute was set up largely under the leadership role of
zainul abedin, who was ably supported by quamrul hassan,
Safiuddin Ahmed, Anwarul Huq, Khaja Shafique and others.
Zainul Abedin, indeed had made an all-India reputation with
his drawings and sketches of the 1943 famine, now known as the
Famine Sketches, which, in a minimum of details and in bold
brush strokes, brought out the unintegrated suffering of the
people and the bestiality of human greed. Zainul of course
produced many other remarkable works, such as large scroll
pictures depicting the devastation of cyclones or the life of
ordinary people. Quamrul Hassan, too, depicted, in oil and
watercolours, and in his matchless style, the rural life and
the beauty and mystery of village women.
The images of Eternal Bengal haunted him, and he tried to find
their significant forms in his paintings. Safiuddin Ahmed,
during his youth in Calcutta, did both painting and woodcuts.
Later, in the 50s, he went to England and took further
training in etching, which he has practised with gusto ever
since and taught to his students at the Institute of Fine Arts
until his retirement. Safiuddin's paintings and prints
portray, often in swirling and vigorous forms and motifs, some
spectacular symbols: eyes, fishing nets, boats. It
continuously evokes such symbols for a fuller projection of
his understanding of the disquiet and the anxiety of the time
and his expectation of a fuller life.
All these artists had been trained in Calcutta Art College,
and they felt that, after the division of the subcontinent,
their lot fell with East Bengal. Once they were in Dhaka, they
felt that there was no alternative to an art school to train
the talented young artists of the region, who, without any
formal training, had been engaged in various art activities,
including commercial art.
Within a few years, however, it became quite apparent that
what was started only as a training centre had assumed a far
greater role, for it quickly became a meeting place for all
aspiring artists and a forum from which a new art movement
could be launched. The faculty and students of the institute
were in touch with what was happening in the West. Many
teachers went to Europe and Japan for training and came back
with new ideas; but they were also steeped in the traditions
of indigenous and folk art and art forms. The West played a
formative influence in sharpening their sensibilities, but
their firm root protected them from losing their sense of
direction and becoming mere imitators of western art. This
ability to balance and blend the very best elements of local
and foreign art has been a strong point for Bangladeshi
artists.
Over the fifty years since the inception of the Art Institute,
Bangladeshi art has made remarkable progress. The training
provided to its students gave them the freedom to develop
their own talents in keeping with their dominant inclinations.
The heritage of the Bengal school was closely followed by the
students of oriental art, while folk forms found their way in
the work of many artists (including the founding teachers
Zainul Abedin and Qamrul Hassan). But younger faculty and a
large number of students found western art trends particularly
cubism and abstract expressionism to be very useful in
releasing their creative energies.
As a result, the fifties and the sixties witnessed a great
deal of activity in the abstract mode, and for a time,
non-representation seemed to be the most 'modern' trend to
follow. The case for non-representation was not only made by
the obvious freedom of interpretation it provided, or the play
of intelligence it demanded and the objectivity it valorized,
but also by the traditional, conservative attitudes of the
largely Muslim society which disapproved of representational
art. However, when folk art took up representation as its
staple in its stylized and repetitive forms, the same
traditional society withheld its disapproval and even
applauded, since folk art appealed to the feeling of nostalgia
the townspeople felt for the idyllic rural life most of them
had left behind.
The younger contemporaries of Zainul, among whom one counts
Rashid Choudhury, Kazi Abdul Baset, Abdur Razzaque, Mohammad
Kibria, Aminul Islam, Murtaja Baseer, Devdas Chakrabarty, Syed
Jahangir, Hamidur Rahman and a few others were the products of
the restless 50s. They were restless because too many things
were being done in too short a time. The politics of the time
had become charged with a new nationalism and an educated
middle class had emerged that came to occupy an important
position in matters ranging from politics to culture. Students
found themselves at the vanguard of the movement for the
rights of Bengalees. There were other, newer configurations in
society that ranged emergent forces on all sides of the
social, political and cultural spectrum.
Painters and sculptors were increasingly saddled with the
responsibility of creating a national ethos, in addition to
presenting their individual visions. A new nation demanded a
new cultural identity, which had to be collectively shaped.
There was of course, no outward compulsion; it was more a
silent consensus, and artists began working towards its
fulfillment. The first generation of artists had already
stamped a distinctive, local flavour on their work. It was
left to the fifties' artists to expand the range of art, and
to build on the foundation laid by their predecessors.
Three things happened quickly. First, the distinctive Bengali
or Bangladeshi art expanded its base. Folk elements penetrated
deeper into the artistic psyche, and the fifties canvas began
to show different variations of the pastoral landscape,
subsuming, in the process, elements of disquiet and
discontent. The more oppressive the state machine became, and
the stronger the threat to the Bengali identity was, the more
involved the artists became in projecting an endangered
landscape. In a sense, this involvement with the land has
always remained a strong element of Bangladeshi art. Even as
late as 1976, sm sultan opened an exhibition of his paintings
where, as always, his men and women were strongly built,
muscular and optimistic. This was a statement of Sultan's
belief that at the end of the day, his peasants are
invincible, and the forces of oppression have to make a
retreat.
The second thing that happened was a clear
'internationalization' of style. A number of artists had gone
to England, USA, and Japan for further studies in their chosen
areas and came back with a pretty clear understanding of
contemporary art in those countries. They were now armed with
the latest techniques they could use in their interpretation
of their times. Thus futurism, expressionism, constructivism,
American abstract expressionism all began to leave their mark
on the canvas of these artists. Abstraction and non-figurative
art became the primary means of expression for many, with a
hugely creative and new interpretation given to colour, line,
space and texture. For many viewers, these abstract
compositions were synonymous with modern art. Obviously, there
were other aspects of modernity in the work of the
contemporary artists which a small number of art critics and
historians began to explain earnestly to the public.
The third development was subtler, but the ends were not so
subtle, after all. The artists became conscious, more than
their predecessors or elder contemporaries, that art works
should sell, that art is also livelihood and has an economic
value. What we call professionalism, both in the qualitative
and commercial senses of the term, began to develop. Artists
became more careful about their canvas, their colour, the
framing of their art works, and felt the need for exhibitions
and participation in competitions abroad. They also felt the
need to communicate with the public, and may be, 'explain'
their work. This attitude certainly helped bridge the gap that
existed between 'modern' (in the sense of abstract) art and
the viewing public. By the sixties, therefore, modern art in
Bangladesh had assumed its own pronounced content, and its own
language of expression. From almost nothing, our artists had
generated, what amounted to, a movement. Art schools, art
galleries, an art-loving public, art critics, and a supportive
media all found their designated places or roles in that
movement.
The war of liberation ushered in an overpowering sense of
reality. What could be more real than the deaths of so many
people and the nightmare of the life that people had to live
during these nine months? As a result, post-liberation art saw
the gradual coming back of representation, and an inclination
in our artists towards more innovation. The latter was
achieved through a new understanding of colour and indigenous
traditions and through the felt need to create one's
distinctive style and to strive for a new art that would
reflect the changing moods of the time. The results have been
some striking innovations in techniques that challenge us with
their skill, creativity and imagination. Today, we have our
own versions of postmodern art and installation art, although,
understandably, not everyone has been able to pass the test.
Not surprisingly, then, we have had our share of bad art, but
these have routinely sunk into oblivion as the really talented
work rose into prominence.
Apart from the Art Institute, what helped our art attain its
present level of maturity and our artists the confidence to
explore newer and newer horizons have been the art departments
in a few universities, and art schools scattered in different
district towns of Bangladesh. The art departments of
Chittagong and Rajshahi universities are doing splendid work
and are training up young minds in the latest trends and
techniques. The Department of Fine Art of Chittagong
University has employed such talents as Rashid Choudhury,
Devdas Chakravorty, Murtaja Baseer, Mizanur Rahim,
Monsur-ul-Karim and Abul Mansur to name only a few - and has
consistently worked for a cultural resurgence in a region,
which, in recent years, has seen an ominous rise of political
and sectarian violence. The art schools in Chittagong, Khulna,
and other places are also making their contributions to the
development of art in Bangladesh.
The premier government institution to emerge after
independence with specific duties and responsibilities to
promote art and culture was bangladesh shilpakala academy or
the Academy of Fine and Performing Arts. Set up in 1974, the
Academy conducts wide ranging activities in the fields of
music, dance, drama and art. The Academy's art gallery was,
for a time, the only standard gallery in town apart from that
of the art institute, and provided much needed support to
established as well as new and aspiring artists. The Academy,
besides having a permanent collection, holds regular art
exhibitions the most coveted ones being the national young
artists exhibition held every year. From 1981, the Academy has
also been holding the Asian Art Biennale, an art festival
involving nearly 40 Asian countries. The Art Biennale has
provided an opportunity to our artists to get to know the
contemporary art trends of other Asian countries (now
Australia, and a few African countries are also participants).
The Biennale has also given our artists an international
platform. The Academy also publishes books and monographs on
art as well as special albums of works by reputed artists.

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