about joynul abedin
Tittle: Joynul Abedin
Bangladeshi Painter.
Zainul
Abedin (29 December 1914 – 28 May 1976) also known
as Shilpacharya (Master of Art) was a prominent Bangladeshi painter.
He became well known in 1944 through his series of paintings depicting some of
the great famines in Bengal during its British colonial
period. After the Partition of
Indian subcontinent he moved to East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh). In 1948, he helped to establish the Institute of Arts and Crafts
(now Faculty of Fine
Arts) at the University of Dhaka.[1] The Indian Express has
described him as a legendary Bangladeshi painter and activist.[2] Like
many of his contemporaries, his paintings on the Bengal famine of
1943 are viewed as his most characteristic works. His
homeland honored him with given the title "Shilpacharya" (Bengali: শিল্পাচার্য) "Great teacher of
the arts" for his artistic and visionary attributes.[3][4][5] He
was the pioneer of the modern art movement
that took place in Bangladesh and was rightly considered by Syed Manzoorul
Islam as the founding father of Bangladeshi modern arts,
soon after Bangladesh earned the status of an independent republic.
Early life and education
Abedin was born in
Kishoreganj on 29 December 1914.[7] Much
of his childhood was spent near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River. The
Brahmaputra would later appear in many of his paintings and be a source of
inspiration all throughout his career. Many of his works
framed Brahmaputra and a series of watercolors that Abedin did as his
tribute to the river earned him the Governor's gold medal in an all-India
exhibition in 1938. This was the first time when he came under spotlight and
this award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style.[8]
In 1933, Abedin was
admitted to the Government School of Art in Calcutta (now Government College of Art & Craft,
Kolkata, India). Here for five years
he learned British/ European academic style and later he joined the faculty of
the same school after his graduation. He was the first Muslim student to obtain
first class distinction from the school.[9] He
was dissatisfied with the oriental style and the limitations of European
academic style and this led him towards realism. In 1948, with help from a few
colleagues, he founded an art institute in Dhaka. Back then, there were no art
institutes in the city. Soon after, it went on to be considered the best art
institute in Pakistan during its early years. He worked in the Pakistani
government for a while.[10] He
taught at the institute and among his students was Pakistani artist Mansur
Rahi.[11] He
also taught Bangladeshi artists such as Monirul Islam[12] and Mohammad Kibria.[13]
After completing his two
years of training from Slade School of Fine Art in London, he
began a new style, the 'Bengali style', where the main features were: folk
forms with their geometric shapes, sometimes semi-abstract representation, and
the use of primary colors. But he lacked the sense of perspective. Later he
realized the limitations of folk art, so he went back to the nature, rural life
and the daily struggles of man to make art that would be realistic but modern
in appearance.[14][15]
Paintings[
Jainul
Abedin Gallary
Among all the contemporary
works of Abedin, his famine sketches of the 1940s are his most remarkable
works. His famine painting set which, exhibited in 1944, brought him even more
critical acclaim. The miserable situation of the starving people during the
Great Famine of Bengal in 1943 touched his heart. He made his own ink by
burning charcoal and used it on cheap, ordinary packing paper. He depicted
those starving people who were dying by the road-side.[1] Abedin
not only documented the famine, he also revealed the famine's sinister face
through the skeletal figures of people fated to die of starvation. [16]
Abedin depicted this
inhuman story with very human emotions. These drawings became iconic images of
human suffering. These sketches helped him find his way in a realistic approach
that focused on the human suffering, struggle and protest. He was more socially
aware focusing on the working class and their struggles.[17] The
Rebel Cow marks a high point of that style. This particular brand of realism
combines social inquiry and the protest with higher aesthetics. He was an
influential member of the Calcutta Group of
progressive artists and was friends with Shahid Suhrawardy and Ahmed Ali of
the Progressive Writers' Movement.[18] He
made modernist paintings of Santhal people.
Notable among them is "Two Santhal Women".[19]
He visited Palestinian
camps in Syria and Jordan in 1970 and made 60–70 paintings of the refugees
there.[20] He
also painted the 1970 Bhola cyclone that
devastated East Pakistan.[10]
Personal life and death[edit]
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