Bangladesh observe Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin's 109th birth anniversary

The 109th birth anniversary of the master painter and pioneering art educator Zainul Abedin, widely revered as the 'Shilpacharya' (great master of fine arts) and the most respected artist in the country.

Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin was born on 29 December 1914, in Kishoreganj in then-British India, and was a key figure in the establishment of the Dhaka University Faculty of Fine Art (FFA) and the Folk Art Museum in Sonargaon, Narayanganj.

The artist community is celebrating the 109th birth anniversary of the Shilpacharya with a variety of celebrations, most notably the traditional 'Zainul Utshab' by Dhaka University's Faculty of Fine Art and Bangladesh Folk Art & Crafts Foundation.

This year, the Faculty of Fine Art is also celebrating its 75th founding anniversary alongside the 'Zainul Utshab'. The festivity is decorated with rickshaw art, paying homage to its latest UNESCO-recognition.

DU Vice-Chancellor Professor ASM Maksud Kamal inaugurated the festival as its chief guest on Friday at the Bakultala of the FFA premise. The event was also joined by DU FFA Emeritus Professors and eminent artists Hashem Khan and Rafiqun Nabi who handed over the prestigious 'Zainul Award 2023' to the respective art luminaries.

Dhaka University Pro VC Professor Dr Muhammad Samad, Treasurer Professor Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed and Shilpacharya's youngest son Engineer Mainul Abedin also joined the inauguration ceremony as the special guests.

Earlier, the Faculty of Fine Art and other art organizations placed floral wreaths on the grave of the Shilpacharya in the morning.

Zainul Abedin earned global respect for his 1943 illustrations of the Bengal famine. He visited Palestinian camps in Syria and Jordan in 1970 and made 60–70 paintings of the refugees there, adding another example of his calibre as a modern, international artist.

During childhood, he discovered his love of art while a young child frolicking by the Brahmaputra river.

His motherland, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), welcomed him back after he graduated from the Government Art School in Kolkata in 1932. However, shortly after the Indian subcontinent was divided in 1947, he permanently departed Kolkata and returned to his motherland in Bangladesh.

The Dhaka Art Institute was subsequently founded with active help from Zainul Abedin, who was appointed as the institute's principal in 1949. The institute later developed into the current day Dhaka University's Faculty of Fine Art.

The institute became the hub of fine arts practices in then East Pakistan and actively participated in historical foundation events of independent Bangladesh such as the 1952 Language Movement and the 1971 Liberation War under the artistic leadership of Zainul.

He retired from the Dhaka Art Institute in 1967 and was conferred the honorary title of Shilpacharya (great master of fine arts) by the institute.

Before taking the mantle of Shilpacharya, Zainul Abedin received two years of training from the Slade School of Fine Art in London and developed a new style of art called the 'Bengali style' featuring folk art forms with their geometric shapes including the usage of semi-abstract representation and primary colours.

However, he lacked the sense of perspective, realised the limitations of folk art, and went back to nature, rural life and the daily struggles of people to make art that would be realistic but modern in appearance, thus being the pioneer of modern artistic style in the subcontinent.

Known for the simple yet majestic projection of natural and social hazards, Zainul painted the 1970 Bhola cyclone that devastated then East Pakistan, portraying the effect of the cyclone through his painting 'Monpura'.

As a fond lover of folk arts, Zainul formed Charu O Karu Shilpi Sangram Parishad and also collected a large number of traditional crafts, ceramic works, and nakshi kanthas in his lifetime which he preserved through founding the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon, Narayanganj in 1975.

He also founded the Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his works at the Shaheeb Quarter Park on the bank of his nostalgia-infused Brahmaputra River in Mymensingh in the same year.

In 1973, Zainul received an honorary D.Litt from Delhi University. He was declared the National Professor of Bangladesh in 1975. NASA honoured the iconic artist by naming a crater on the planet Mercury after the painter, called the 'Abedin Crater' in 2009.

The revered artist passed away in Dhaka on May 28, 1976, after losing his battle with lung cancer. He was buried beside the Dhaka University Central Mosque.