Page 343 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

340 ART AND CRAFTS

Meanwhile, in 1982, he was awarded the Ekushey Padak by the Government of
Bangladesh. In the same year, the Biographical Centre of Cambridge University
awarded him the distinction of ‘Man of Achievement.’ From 1984 the Government of
Bangladesh honored him with the rare tribute of `Resident Artist’. He was honored by
the Bangladesh Charushilpi Samsad in 1986. Sultan was awarded the Swadhinata
Padak (Liberation Award) in 1993.
This great artist died at the Jessore Cantonment Combined Medical Hospital on 10
October 1994.
2
We can divide the art works of Sultan’s entire life into two parts for the convenience
of discussion although there is an inseparable connection between these two parts. We
may include his art works of the 40s and the 50s in the first part and the art works of
post-liberation Bangladesh of the 70s as the second part. But the problem is, we do not
have enough documentation or original paintings to assert as to the type of art works
he produced during the 40s and the 50s. We have no other alternative than to depend
on a few articles of the then art critics, a few reproductions in books and newspapers
and interviews of the artist himself. To understand the matter a quote from a passage
of S. Amjad Ali’s published in the Pakistan Quarterly in 1952 follows: ‘Sultan has no
art works in his collection since he sells all his paintings. This is why it is not possible
for me to know what he had painted before Pakistan was born. However this much is
known that he had painted a lot and the subject matter of it was life.’ 126 [Trans.]
Therefore, we see that Sultan’s earlier works became rare even in 1952. However, in
this case we can get some idea from the artist’s own statements. He states about the
first solo exhibition at Simla in 1946, “All the paintings in the exhibition were
fig. 8.25 Landscape-2, watercolors. I had not started painting in oil then.... The subject matter was mainly
oil, 1951
landscape. Landscape and working people.’ 127
About the paintings done in Lahore and
Karachi of Pakistan Sultan says, ‘I had
painted some landscapes of Kashmir from
memory, some of the paintings were
based on life in Bangladesh, the
agriculture. In addition, I did some
paintings of Bangladesh in the historical
perspective, painted the primitive life of
Bengalis as a people... I tried to bring the
Bengali people in historical sequence in
the paintings.’ 128
Furthermore, he said, ‘In those days I also
used to paint abstract and semi-abstract
pictures, but only a very few since I never
felt attracted to that trend of paintings’ 129