Page 306 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 303

social responsibility took the decision to build an art school in Dhaka, disregarding
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his unimaginable success and the opportunities that Kolkata held for him, he came to
Dhaka accompanied by his wife and arrived at his father-in-law’s residence in No. 12,
Abdul Hadi Lane. Thereupon, he joined Normal School situated in Armanitola as a
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teacher and utilizing his own organizing capabilities and fame, with the cooperation
of prominent personalities was successful in swiftly carrying forward the work of
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founding an art school. Although the art school started functioning in November of
1948 (in two rooms on the ground floor of the two-storied building of the Dhaka
National Medical School situated in Johnson Road), Zainul had to leave for Karachi
for one year as he was employed in the Publicity Branch of the Central Information
and Radio Department of Pakistan. It is to be noted that the number of Bengali Muslim
teachers who were employed previously in the Calcutta Art School had all come to
Dhaka and Zainul started the program of the Art School with them. During his absence
Anwarul Huq was the one among the teachers who performed the duties of temporary
Principal for the first one year. So, in spite of being the founder Principal Zainul joined
the Dhaka Art Institute on the 1st of February, 1949. 80
Right after his coming to East Pakistan the important pictures that Zainul painted were
one hundred posters on the subject ‘of Sultan Mohammad’s conquest of Delhi to the
establishment of Pakistan by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the most praised and
discussed picture by Zainul in Pakistan was the water color On the Way to Quaide’s
Grave (1948). Even if there was no new dimension added in these pictures, these
informations are of great significance to us because Zainul had total faith in the state
of Pakistan which had been formed on the basis of religious ideals and spirit. But the
Art Institute that Zainul established with the direct assistance of the Pakistan
Government had not the slightest influence of religious consciousness or narrow
mindedness just as it was absent from Zainul’s own style of painting. Rather it may be
noticed that Zainul tried to retain the characteristics and qualities for which he became
renowned throughout India before the partition even after coming to East Pakistan and
use it for the benefit of the artists. 81
Actually, rather than concentrating anew on thoughts and ideas about the practice of
art or on creating a syllabus suitable for the new age by liberating it from the colonial
legacy for the newly formed ‘Art Institute’ in Dhaka and so on, the most important
task of that age was transforming the huge group of people who were uninterested in
art into people with a taste for art. Besides this, a big challenge was to become
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equally equipped as West Pakistan in terms of various opportunities and facilities. In
those times the condition and environment of contemporary fine arts in West Pakistan
was much more advanced in comparison to East Pakistan. Ages before the creation of
Pakistan (in 1875) the ‘Mayo’ Art School was established in Lahore in the mould of
the Calcutta Art School and in 1940 in Punjab University a department was established
to provide higher education in this subject. Besides, before the partition of India
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painters with a modern outlook such as Bhabesh Sanyal and Amrita Shergil regularly