The 48th anniversary of the death of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin will be observed today.
Different organisations, including fine arts faculty of Dhaka University and Zainul Abedin鈥檚 family members are scheduled to pay tribute to the artist placing floral wreaths on his grave on Dhaka University campus in the morning.
鈥榃e are scheduled to pay tribute to Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin placing floral wreaths on his grave in the morning,鈥� fine arts faculty dean Nisar Hossain said.
Born in Kishoreganj on December 29, 1914, Zainul Abedin grew up in a village of idyllic beauty on the bank of the River Brahmaputra that fostered his imagination.
In 1933, the artist enrolled at Calcutta Government Art School. Later, he joined the faculty of the same institute after graduation.
The modern art master came into the limelight and earned wide recognition for his sketches of the Bengal famine in 1943.
Known as Famine Sketches, the historically significant works done in black ink on cheap brown paper are still regarded as a testament to the starving and dying masses on the streets of the colonial Kolkata.
Immediately after the partition of the Indian subcontinent, the artist left Kolkata with some of his Muslim peers to permanently settle in Dhaka and helped to give shape to the first modern art institution in the then East Pakistan.
Zainul鈥檚 pioneering effort in establishing an art institute in Dhaka in 1948, which was named Dhaka Art Institute, left a lasting impact on society as a whole.
Zainul became the principal of the institute at the beginning of 1949. The institute, now Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University, became the hub of modern art practices in the country.
In 1959, Zainul was awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest government honour, by then Pakistan government.
He voluntarily went into retirement from Dhaka Art Institute in 1967 and was conferred the honorary title 鈥楽hilpacharya鈥� (great master of fine arts) by the institute.
In 1969, Zainul painted a 65-foot long scroll titled 鈥楴abanna鈥� depicting the rural Bengal and another 32-foot scroll titled 鈥楳anpura 70鈥�, painted in 1973, recalling the effect of the devastating cyclone that hit the coastal areas of the country in 1970.
In 1971, Zainul formed Charu O Karu Shilpi Sangram Parishad to lend momentum to the political movement for autonomy and also renounced the title 鈥楬ilal-e-Imtiaz鈥� as part of his protest against the oppressive rule of the then Pakistan junta.
In 1973, Zainul received an honorary DLit degree from Delhi University. He was made national professor in 1975.
In 1975, he founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon in Narayanganj, which he planned since he had first begun to collect folk art and kanthas during his teaching years. In the same year, he established Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery for permanent display of some of his works, in Mymensingh.
The master artist died on May 28, 1976.
