Page 305 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

302 ART AND CRAFTS

of man himself. Moreover, here nature is present also to explain the position,
environment and motive of the figures or to make the figures clearer and more
important; sometimes again to reduce the continuously increasing depth of the
background (fig. 8.1, pl. 8.4).
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Another special aspect of the Famine series that has repeatedly pervaded Zainul’s style
of painting is the domination of lines. Of course, lines dominate the pictures painted
with limited colors, even when using the autonomous character of primary colors, the
forms have been separated and well defined from one another, and lines have been
used to finish the painting (pls. 8.2, 8.5). This process of painting can undoubtedly be
marked as a characteristic originating from the artistic ideal of the east. However,
there are also pictures by Zainul done in the late forties in which the qualities and
characteristics mentioned are nearly nowhere to be found (pl. 8.3, 8.4). The subject of
these pictures present the refined, luxurious life of the middle class instead of the life
of laboring people. Likewise, the material has changed from the plain and simple
brush-ink-watercolor to the aristocratic medium of oil colors. His marriage in 1946 is
one of the most important reasons that can be singled out behind this temporary
change. Probably because his wife Jahanara Begum came from a comparatively more
educated and wealthy family that Zainul left his ‘one room house of No. 19 Circus
Row which was the birth place of the Famine series,’ [trans.] to live in a more
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improved environment and moved to a flat of Ahmad Court in Tarakdutta Road. 74
Besides, the communal riots of 1946, the probable independence of India, partition
and the plan to establish Pakistan, and other such issues also encouraged the feelings
of self-interest and group identity in people of all communities. Moreover, the Bengali
Muslim had never lived a very respectable, opulent life. They had suffered with their
whole existence the helplessness of being powerless and the ravages of poverty. 75
Therefore, quite naturally this consciousness also overcame Zainul, the proof of which
fig. 8.6 Famine Sketch-
13, brush and ink, 1943 is to be found in Zainul’s taking part in an exhibition organized solely with Muslim
artists held in late 1946 in Calcutta
Islamia College. Prior to the partition,
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the plan of the state of Pakistan born
out of Jinnah’s two nations theory
strongly shook Zainul also who was a
son of the backward Muslim majority
region of East Bengal. Already a
university had been established in
Dhaka in the interest of the people of
this backward region, as a result of
which there had been created a
environment conducive for advanced
education and the growth of culture.
Therefore, Zainul being dedicated to