Looking back at art movement in Bangladesh
DOT Desk
The history of contemporary art in Bangladesh begins at the time of partition of the subcontinent in 1947, when Zainul Abedin and some of his contemporaries Habibullah Bahar, Shafiqul Amin, Quamrul Hassan, Khaja Shafique Ahmed, Safiuddin Ahmed, Anwarul Haq, Ali Ahsan (some of them) migrated from West Bengal to establish an art institution in Dacca, reports The Daily Observer.
Among them, Zainul Abedin is considered to be the pioneer of the modern art movement in our country. He firstly felt of an art institution in our country (East Pakistan) when he was a student of the Government School of Art, Calcutta (now Kolkata). Afterward they established Dhaka Art School (at present the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka) in 1948, which is the first art education centre in the newly shaped state.
Among the founding members of the Dacca Art College, Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan, Shafiqul Amin and Safiuddin Ahmed were famous for their artistic endeavors. They studied at the Government School of Art, Calcutta and they were lucky to get some legendary teachers in their study period. Afterwards, this helped them to establish the art institution in Dacca.
It is noticeable that veteran painters Mohammad Kibria and SM Sultan were not students of the Dhaka Art College and not directly involved in its establishment. Both the painters have had a significant contribution to Bangladeshi art. Kibria graduated from the Government School of Art, Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1950. At one stage SM Sultan joined the Calcutta Art School but he left the institute without completing the degree. The great masters’ works and their modes of expressions however reflect their outstanding pigment as well as loyalty to motherland.
It is noteworthy that the first batch initiated of the Dhaka Art College in 1948 with the students of Aminul Islam, Hamidur Rahman, Abdur Rahman Bhuiyan, Abdul Kader, Mohammad Ismail, Alfazuddin Khandakar, Nurul Islam, Khaled Chowdhury, Shamsul Alam, Imdad Hossain, Julfikar Ali, Probash Sen, Loknath Dhor, Bazle Moula and Ali Humayun. The groups were very committed and most of them involved in left leaning parties. They portrayed nature, urban life and surrounding atmosphere. During the time, Dacca (Now Dhaka) was a tranquil city and it had lots of greenery places. Painters frequently visited Buriganga River, Waiz Ghat and other panoramic places to portray nature with the guidance of their teachers. Zainul Abedin especially stressed on drawing and he successfully understood them about this genre of art and its various significant aspects. The students also portrayed political chaos, economic crises, city life, rural life, still life and other subjects. Some of them were greatly influenced by internationally acclaimed impressionist painters.
In 1950s, it was hardly being found students to study in Art College. The founding members roved door to door for searching students. Fortunately, they got a bunch of students and started second batch with the students like Murtaja Baseer, Rashid Chowdhury, Quayyum Chowdhury, Abdur Razzaque and more. In a similar pattern, they started third batch which covered Syed Jahangir, Mobinul Azim, Abdus Shaboor, Mohammad Idris, Mostafa Kamal and others.
In 1950s and 1960s were very significant times for the painters of our country. In mid 50s, a number of painters went abroad to take higher education on their preferred fields. Besides their acquiring education, they got chance to visit many European museums and earned knowledge about modern art. After completion their studies, they came back and started to practice art with novel and refreshing themes and styles. The painters included Hamidur Rahman, Aminul Islam, Murtaja Baseer, Rashid Chowdhury, Abdur Razzaque and others. During the time, these groups of painters were greatly influenced by abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, pure abstraction and non-figuration. Most of them are treated as experimental painters. They continuously dwelt on space, form and composition. This time, artists concentrated on textures, forms, tones, especially they concentrated more on technical aspects. Though the movement of the sixties was heavily influenced by few internationally prominent Abstract Expressionists like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Franz Kline and Adolph Gottlieb, it paved the way towards liberalisation. Thus the present accomplishments of Bangladesh’s art owes to the liberalization.
In the same time, one group started to work with emotions and the other worked with intelligence. Gradually, forms and compositions were the predominant aspects in the group of painters. Forms and symbols carried many distinct languages, which were closely connected to political turmoil, instability, economic crises and social discrimination.
After mid 60s, a number of painters focused on nationalism in their works. They started to explore tradition, folk motifs. The artists of this genre worked more or less in a mixture of western naturalism, Bengal School and folk expressions.
After the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, the art scene saw a renewed pledge to depict the aspirations of a new nation in multifarious expressions. During that time, a number of painters made the Liberation War, the subject of their works and a number of painters actively participated in the war. After independence, they expressed their experiences through art. There was also a revitalised search for tradition and heritage and a return to the figurative and the generation of the 1970s started working with diverse materials and idioms.
After independence, another transformation had been happened in our art arena. Painters felt free themselves and their artistic creativities explored in well underway. During the time a number of painters went for higher training in different parts of the world. Some were permanently lived there and tried to establish themselves in the new horizon.
Another important event for our art scene was Asian Art Biennale. In 1981, first Asian Art Biennale was held in Dhaka. Since then the festival has been organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The Biennale brings a festive mood among the artists, art enthusiasts and critics. The festival has given us a chance to introduce with overseas painters’ artworks, their styles, techniques and themes. Our artists started to prepare with new ideas and techniques. From that time, our artists’ especially young painters started to experiment with themes, lines, compositions, forms and textures.
Between the beginning of the 80s and late 90s, a number of talented painters also permanently migrated abroad to study on their favourite fields. Some are successfully working there and could establish themselves with the contemporary European art. Though they live abroad but their umbilical cords with Bangladesh is still seemingly intact.
One significant feature of the 80s and 90s is that many women artists have appeared as serious painters and many of them are addressing various kinds of social, cultural and environmental issues like harassment and discrimination of women and children, deforestation, river erosion, communalism, social intolerance etc. The artists portrayed their artistic creativities with different modes like surrealistic, semi-realistic, figurative, symbolic, abstract, semi-abstract and conceptual. Some of their works plunged deep into narrative and absurd art. They are considered to be more social conscious painters as their first focal point was varied social dilemmas and they voices were very similar to the act of anti-establishment. Their paintings articulate their personal observations, experiences, understanding and deep observations on the anomalies in our society — particularly when it comes to what is now termed the second sex by feminists. The canvases focus on women’s regrets, needs, despair and frustration. Their works are crowded with protesting and tormented figures that demonstrate the common and unfortunate features of life. They deal with a variety of subjects in addition to women—- corruption, misplaced idealism and religious bigotry.
During the time, another feature had been added to our art scene. Painters started to extensively exhibit their works abroad and many foreign painters came here for exhibition. The foreign artists exchanged their experiences and thinking process with Bangladeshi painters. And this is the time; painters again got the chance to explore themselves. A good number of young artists are working who are displaying a keen sense of consciousness and are negotiating issues like identity and tradition with a more objective understanding and are attempting to address more relevant national and international issues like globalisation, communalism, feminism, environment and economic and social discrimination in a language which is at the same time contemporaneous and markedly distinctive.
Another significant aspect of the 80s is that artist Nisar Hossain along with his contemporaries like Dali Al Mamun, Dilara Begum Jolly, Habibur Rahman, Shishir Bhattacharjee, Saidul Haque Juise formed a group styled ‘Somoy’, at the beginning of the ’80s. The group addressed religious bigotry, superstition, political and social discrimination through their works. Here art has become the voice against all sorts of evil deeds. Their language was different from the so-called mandatory approaches like “Art is Beauty”. They are considered to be anti-establishment. As a pressure-group, it resorted to outrageous tactics to attack the established traditions of art, employing a barrage of manifestations, as well as expositions of absurdist art, intentionally designed to scandalise and shock, both the authorities and the general public. Later on, the group did not continue their artistic activities regularly but some of them started to focus their paradigm individually in their artistic effort. I think this was the time when the artists of younger generation started thinking differently of their visions and imaginations.
In the mid 90s, a big change took the place in Dhaka’s art circuit when a number of cerebral painters started looking for new language and new technique. Installation and videography were introduced largely in the time.