Page 34 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 31

Behari displayed a progressive and
modernistic look amalgamating
influences from both western and
eastern traditions and perhaps contained
indications of modern Indian painting
of the future (pl.1.10). His murals also
displayed such possibilities.
Ramkinkar’s sculptures as well as his
paintings can similarly be treated as the
pioneering examples of the future art of
modern India (pl.1.11). In the 1940s
Bengal was struck by a great famine as
a consequence of the second world war,
which is now well known as the
‘Bengal Famine of 1943’ in which
millions died of starvation. Artists in
Bengal were moved by the incident and a number of them did paintings on the theme fig. 1.17 Chittaprasad
including famous artists of the region. However, the dreadful realities and the extreme Bhattacharya, brush and
ignominy of humanity as a result of the famine were portrayed with all their tragic ink, 1944
realism in the works of two very young artists – Zainul Abedin (1914-76) (fig.1.16), a
young teacher of the Govt. Art College and Chittaprasad Bhattacharya (1915-78), a
worker-painter of the Indian Communist Party (fig.1.17).
Some organizations played important roles in the development of fine arts in colonial
India. Most of them were established at the initiative of some enthusiastic English
civil servants and elite members from the Bengali society. Kolkata’s ‘Brush Club’
(1830) was in all probability the first such association of artists in India. Members of
it organized the first ever art exhibition in India as well. Other such groups included
‘Calcutta Art Society’ (1889), ‘Indian Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts and
National Gallery’(1892), ‘Bangiya Kala Samsad’(1905), ‘Indian Society of Oriental
Art’(1907), ‘Bichitra’(1916), ‘Society of Fine Arts’(1921) and ‘Calcutta
Group’(1942). Indian Society of Oriental Art was pioneered by Abanindranath and
Gaganendranath Tagore, while the initiative behind the Bichitra Sabha or the Bichitra
Club, which was centered around the Tagore-house at Jorasanko, was Rabindranath
Tagore. However, art trends with influences from the west were initiated in
contemporary Indian art by the establishment of the Calcutta Group. Members of this
group included Prodosh Dasgupta (1912-), Gopal Ghosh (1913-80), Nirad
Majumder(1916-82), Paritosh Sen (1918-), Shuvo Thakur (1912-?), Rathin Maitra
(1913-97), Prankrishna Paul (1915-?) etc. many of whom became established in later
years as important pioneers of modern art in independent India. 32
There was no significant example as such of institutional art education in the area
known as East Bengal and later on Bangladesh in the two hundred years of colonial