Page 30 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 27

protagonist of the western system of art education, established his own art institution
before Ranadaprasad, ‘The Indian School of Art’, in 1893 which has survived till now
despite many obstacles and limitations and has lately been taken over by the
government. Apart from these, there were other efforts to introduce art education from
many quarters and on different occasions, but all of them were short-lived. ‘National
School’, which offered an art course as well, was initiated by ‘Hindu Mela’ in 1872
and Shyamacharan Srimani was appointed art teacher of the school. A self-taught
artist, Girindrakumar Datta (1841-1909), founded ‘The Albert Temple of Science and
School of Technical Art’ in 1876 to commemorate the Prince of Wales’ visit to India
in that year. Manmathanath’s pupil in ‘The Indian School of Art’, Shashibhushan Paul
(1878-1946), went back to his village in Maheshwarpasha in the district of Khulna and
established ‘Maheshwarpasha School of Fine Art’ in 1904. 30
This school was the first of its kind in the geographical area which now consists of
Bangladesh and perhaps the only village-oriented art school in this subcontinent.
Shashibhushan thus commands a pioneering role in the history of art education in
Bangladesh. Other artists who worked in the naturalistic tradition in the twentieth
century included Jamini Prakash Gangooly (1878-1953) (pl.1.4), Hemendranath
Majumdar (1894-1948) (pl.1.5), Atulchandra Bose (1898-1977), Basantakumar
Gangooly (1893-1968), Prohlad Karmakar (?-1946) and Debiprasad Roychowdhury
(1899-1975).
5. Abanindranath and the Neo-Bengal School
E. B. Havell, an admirer and promoter of Indian art, was appointed principal of the
Calcutta Art School in 1896. Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) agreed to join the art
school as vice-principal at the request of Havell and joined hands with him in fig. 1.11 Abanindranath
introducing the Indian techniques of art education in the institution (fig.1.11). Tagore, The Final
Nandalal Bose (1883-1966) (fig.1.12), Surendranath Kar (1894-1970), Asit Kumar Moments of Shah Jahan,
Haldar (1890-1964), K. Venkatappa (1887-1965), Samarendranath Gupta (1887- oil, 1902
1964), Kshitindranath Majumder (1891-1975),
Shailendranath Dey (1891-1972) etc. became disciples of
Abanindranath and under his guidance contributed to
introducing a new revivalist art style. The movement received
unprecedented support and its popularity spread all over India
in the emotive atmosphere of the ‘Swadeshi’, the nationalistic
movement. It came to be known as the ‘Bengal School’ or
‘Neo-Bengal Art’ and in fact it was the first true modern art
movement in India.
Havell and Abanindranath did not approve of the dramatic
paintings in oil in the western technique by the popular
painter Raja Ravi Varma of Kerala depicting Indian religious
and mythological scenes. They tried, instead, to re-introduce
the techniques of traditional Indian art. Interestingly, the