Background
Abedin was born in Bangladesh on December 29, 1914. His father, Tamizuddin Ahmed, was a sub-inspector of police while his mother, Joynabunnessa, was a housewife.
28, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016, India
In 1933 Abedin was admitted to Kolkata Government Art School, where for five years, he learned British/European academic style, graduating in 1938.
28, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016, India
In 1933 Abedin was admitted to Kolkata Government Art School, where for five years, he learned British/European academic style, graduating in 1938.
Zainul Abedin at work.
28, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Kolkata, West Bengal 700016, India
In 1933 Abedin was admitted to Kolkata Government Art School, where for five years, he learned British/European academic style, graduating in 1938.
Zainul Abedin at work.
Portrait of Zainul Abedin.
Abedin was born in Bangladesh on December 29, 1914. His father, Tamizuddin Ahmed, was a sub-inspector of police while his mother, Joynabunnessa, was a housewife.
Zainul Abedin painted from early years. Much of his childhood he spent near the picturesque Brahmaputra river. The Brahmaputra later showed up in many of his artworks and was a source of inspiration throughout his career.
At the age of 16, Abedin ran away from home and went to Kolkata with friends only see the arts of the Government School. In 1933 he was admitted to Kolkata Government Art School, where for five years, he learned British/European academic style. He was the first Muslim student to obtain first class distinction from the school in 1938.
In 1938, Abedin joined the staff of the faculty of the Art School and continued to paint in his laid-back, romantic style. However, he was totally dissatisfied with the oriental style and the limitations of European academic style and he turned towards Realism in his art. In 1943, he produced a series of sketches on the man-made famine that had spread throughout Bengal, killing thousands of people. He depicted starving people who were dying by the road-side. The artist not only documented the famine, but he also revealed the famine's grim face through the skeletal figures of people fated to die of starvation.
These sketches brought Zainul Abedin fame all over India. But more than that they helped him find his rhythm in a realistic mode that foregrounded human suffering, struggle as well as protest. The Rebel Crow (1951) was a good example that proved this fact.
In 1947, after the partition of the subcontinent, Zainul Abedin settled in Dhaka, the capital of the eastern province of Pakistan. In 1948 Zainul Abedin, with the help of few of his colleagues, established Dhaka Art School (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). Back then, there were no art institutes present in Dhaka. This institute was considered the best art institute in Pakistan during its early years.
He went to London in 1951. After his return, Zainul's artworks showed the beginning of a new style a Bengali style. Folk forms with their geometric, sometimes semi-abstract representations, the use of primary colours and a lack of perspective were pivotal features. Two Women, Painna's Mother and Woman, all painted in 1953, are some of the notable works of this period.
Zainul Abedin’s artworks during the 1950s and 1960s reflected his preference for realism, his aesthetic discipline, his inclination for folk forms and primary colours. Increasingly, however, he came to realise the limitations of folk art. As a way of surpassing these limitations, the artist resumed depicting nature, rural life, and the daily struggles of man. He returned to a combination of styles that would be realistic in essence, but modernist in appearance.
In addition, Zainul Abedin worked in the Pakistani government for a while. He taught at the art institute and among his students were Pakistani artist Mansur Rahi and Bangladeshi artist Mohammad Kibria. Zainul Abedin visited Palestinian camps in Syria and Jordan in 1970 and created about 60-70 paintings of the refugees there. He also painted the 1970 Bhola cyclone that devastated the then East Pakistan.
In 1975, Abedin founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon in Narayanganj, and Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his own works in Mymensingh. In 1982, 17 of the 70 pictures were stolen from the gallery. Only 10 were later found.
Zainul Abedin was the pioneer of the modern art movement that took place in Bangladesh. He was nominated as the "Shilpacharya" (Great Teacher of the Arts) by his students in 1967 for his contribution to the development of Bangladesh Art Industry. In 1974 he received Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Delhi, India.
In 2009, a crater on the planet Mercury was named after Abedin. His birthday was celebrated in Bangladesh, with a festival in Dhaka University and children's art competition in Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala (art gallery). Abedin's sketch was auctioned at auction house Bonhams. Zainul Abedin Museum in Mymensingh, Bangladesh is dedicated to his work.
Santal Couples
The Three Faces
Famine Sketch
Untitled
Famine Series
Laborer couple
Rangamoti
Untitled
Study of a Crow
Untitled
Untitled (Santhal Women)
Untitled (Landscape with Figures)
Baluchi Portrait
Untitled
Untitled (Boats)
Untitled (Potato eaters)
Untitled (Landscape with hut)
31 Wellesley Lane
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Untitled
Boats
Two women
Street children (Famine series)
Two labourers
Zainul Abedin was involved in the Bengali Language Movement of East Pakistan. Besides, he was a representative of the Bangladesh liberation war movement. He was at the forefront of the cultural movement, which aim was to re-establish the Bengali identity, marginalized by the Pakistan government.
Zainul Abedin was married to Jahanara Abedin.
