Page 286 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

WOMEN ARTISTS 283

they went considerably against social mores to enter this
male controlled realm, they could not last there for very
long. Similarly, the new horizons that they pointed to and
their historical importance were not to be evaluated by
patriarchal society. To be quite truthful, they were almost
completely lost.
We again see women entering the art world forcefully and in
numbers in the seventies. The national consciousness to
build a nation free from Pakistan and the wave of socialism
that was riding the world seemed to imbue the whole nation
with power and enthusiasm. Perhaps this is why women
wrested the right to enter all areas of life. The equality of
man and woman was added to progressive thought. The
progression of woman spoke of changes in the whole of
society. Nazlee Laila Mansur (1952- ), Masuma Khan (1952- ),
Farida Zaman (1953- ), Naima Haque (1953), Shamim Shikdar (1953- ), Sadhana
Islam (1954- ) and others completed their art education from the art institute in the
early seventies. They are still active in the field of art. Many of them went abroad for
higher education. In 1974, the first group of women artists held a joint art exhibition
calling themselves ‘Group of Four.’ Farida Zaman, Naima Haque, Shamim Shikdar
and Sadhana Islam participated in this show. Among them, only Farida Zaman has
43
continued to work uninterruptedly. The other three had occasional breaks but
continued to exhibit considerable success in their own field. Sadhana Islam
contributed to establishing the medium of batik as a creative one. Shamim Shikdar
was a prolific sculptor in the eighties and nineties. Most of them were cast in concrete
or constructed in direct cement. Naima Haque in the meanwhile had devoted her
attention to the children’s picture book.
Farida Zaman is the first female artist to receive the national award of the Bangladesh
Government. She received the national young artists’ award. In 1977, she received the
first prize in painting while she was a student in Baroda and was the first Bangladeshi
artist to receive an award at the Fifth International Triennale in Delhi in 1982. The subject
of Farida Zaman’s painting is largely connected to the rural life of Bengal (fig. 7.17).
Fisherman, fish and fishing net keep on appearing in her work. Yet the hopes and horizons
of the woman’s world enter
her work in a slightly poetic
and rhythmic manner. Farida fig. 7.18 (top) Nurun
Nahar (Papa),
Zaman’s other great Composition, mixed
expression is through her media, 1993
book illustration. Her bright
colors and lyrical lines are fig. 7.19 (bottom)
common to both her Naima Haque, He-2,
expressions. If we look for mixed media