Page 56 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

PAINTING 53

metal forms during the sixties. However, the inadequacy in painting and sculpture
during the sixties was mitigated to a great extent by the mass movement of sixty eight-
sixty nine and the extensive and significant participation of the artist community in the
political and cultural public revival. The artist community became the frontline of the
movement through drawing posters-banners-festoons, designing covers and
illustrating commemorative publications, designing stages for group songs and plays,
and especially through the display of narrative paintings drawn on large banners along
the walls of the Shaheed Minar on 21 February and drawing alpana all over the road.
The revival of alpana, various utility items with Bengali letters drawn on them,
introduction of the mela (village fair) etc. played a significant supportive role in
developing the consciousness of tradition. Art played a major part in the national
revival during the latter half of the sixties.

Bangladesh Period (1971– contemporary times)
4. The Seventies
The mass movement of sixty eight-sixty nine logically resulted in the Liberation War
of seventy one. A constant struggle against the persecution and oppression that the
East Pakistanis were subjected to right from the onset of the founding of Pakistan
gradually intensified during the fifties and sixties. The Liberation War of seventy one
is the eventual consequence of this struggle. This deprivation and persecution was
cultural just as it was political and economic. The authorities of Pakistan were always
active against the language, tradition and culture of Bengalis. Thus, the struggle of
East Pakistanis for their rights was a national revival on the one hand, and an effort to
gain freedom for their own tradition and culture on the other. One of the key
inspirations of the Liberation War was to create an environment conducive to
unimpeded practice and development of language and culture. Thus, the Liberation
War had a cultural dimension just as it had a political-military dimension and writers,
artists, singers, cultural workers, everyone played an important part in the struggle. A
few young artists fought directly in the battlefields of the Liberation War, many people
contributed in the promotion and publication of the government in exile. In this
context, we can specially recall the contribution of Quamrul Hassan. The poster
Annihilate these demons drawn by him instilled intense inspiration among those who
participated in the Liberation War (fig. 4.9).
Like all other fields, the independence of Bangladesh created a wave of powerful
vitality in the field of art. For the first time, Bengalis gained their own autonomous
national structure where their language and culture could develop without any
restriction under state support and patronization. And along with that, there was the
pride of victory in the blood besmeared Liberation War and a newly inspired
passionate patriotism. Thus, the seventies was a dynamic, enthusiastic, diversified,
and energetic period in the history of our art. Independence earned through a national
revival naturally created an inspiration to incline towards tradition and heritage. The
unilateral abstraction that had captured the field of art during the sixties dissolved in