Page 308 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

FIRST GENERATION ARTIST 305

other pictures by Zainul, here too the women are the representatives of the common
laboring people of rural Bengal; this is also expressed in the titles of the pictures
(Mother of Painya, Three Village Maidens at Rest, etc.). In their simple faces
instinctive modesty and the hint of the dreams of happiness of the housewife is
observed as is also seen unimpaired their hardworking, capable aspect. The mental
occupation with work is seen to have been expressed even in the position of repose
(pl.1.12). Besides, to determine the form, structure, proportions and undulations of
the female body, preserving the darkness created in opposition to bright light as
‘capricious thick lines,’ or the creation of realistic relations with the surroundings of
the figures, etc., are the aspects that have expressed Zainul’s skill in the western
academic method and ideal. Again, in spite of the fact that the flat, spontaneous lines
were applied merely to increase the design quality, the unyielding and stirring
feeling that they express undoubtedly reveals Zainul’s usual identity. It is important
to notice that, in some of his pictures the composition dividing geometrical structure
and the relation between warm and cool colors have been very consciously used, a
fact that also proves Zainul’s curiosity about the abstract trend in western art.
However, this curiosity never turned him into a blind imitator. Therefore, it is with
good reasons that the critic Richard Wilson writes in 1955, that in one sense it must
be said that these works by Zainul has marked the beginning of Indo-Pakistan’s
entrance into the modern age of painting. He further states that Zainul is the first
artist of India and Pakistan who has been able to integrate the techniques of the art
of abstract painting with the local heritage with immense success and has in no way
given importance to imitation. 88
His interest in folk art was not only limited to the enrichment of his own work; he also
tried to make the citizens enthusiastic about it as well as make a call for its
preservation at the state level. With this intention twice in the years 1954 and 1958 in
the Fine Art Institute he organized exhibitions of folk art and wrote an article
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containing proposals for the state and the citizens with extensive explanations as to
why it was necessary that along with the establishment of a folk art museum various
measures needed to be adopted to preserve folk art. Later he published the article (in
1964) in a newspaper. Another particular motive behind these activities that drove
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Zainul was to make contemporary artists of the country interested about gathering
their sustenance from their own heritage instead of following the west under the
pretext of modernism. Later he took important steps such as to found a full-fledged
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department of ceramics in the Art Institute, to take the initiative to establish a
department of crafts and to build up a folk art collection inside the Institute, etc.
However, because he always placed greater importance on the collective interest
rather than self-enrichment, Zainul could not uninterruptedly continue the successful
advancement of his own practice of painting in the folk form. Most of the time he had
at his disposal after 1954 was expended on developing the standard of education of the
Art Institute and in establishing a standard library with the aim of developing a