The Master of Arts

Zainul Abdedin (1914-1976) is one of the best painters ever born in the Indian subcontinent. The painter is highly renowned for his series of paintings depicting the famine of 1943.  This artist of exceptional talent and international repute is venerated as Shilpacharya (The Master of Arts) in Bangladesh. We remember this great personality on his 38th death anniversary on May 28, 1976.

In 2009, a crater on the planet Mercury was named ‘Abedin’ after the painter Zainul Abedin

Zainul Abedin was born in Bangladesh's Kishoreganj district on December 29, 1914
Much of his childhood was spent near the banks of the Brahmaputra river that would later appear in many of his artworks
In 1933, Abedin was admitted to Calcutta Government Art School
Abedin was the pioneer of the modern art movement that took place in Bangladesh in the 1940s

Zainul Abdedin

In 1948 Abedin with the help of a few of his colleagues founded the first art institute in Dhaka
After completing two years of training from an art school in London, he began a new style, "Bengali style" in painting
The main features of this new style is the representation of folk culture in geometric shapes,  sometimes semi-abstract representation and  the use of primary colours

Abedin's sketches on the famine of 1943 brought critical acclaim when first exhibited in 1944
For these works he made his own ink by burning charcoal and used it on cheap ordinary packing paper
These drawings became iconic images of human suffering, struggle and protest
He was a good friend of Hossain Shahid Suhrawardi and Ahmed Ali of the progressive writer's movement

Abedin was involved in the Bangladesh liberation war movement
In 1969, Abedin painted a scroll using Chinese ink, watercolour and wax named Nobanno to celebrate the then ongoing non cooperation movement
In 1975, he founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon and a gallery of his own works in Mymensingh
Two Faces was his last painting, completed shortly before his death
This great artist died on May 28, 1976