Zainul Abedin’s 102nd birth anniv today

The 102nd birth anniversary of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin will be celebrated today across the country.
The day’s event will begin with placing of wreaths on the grave of the master artist on Dhaka University campus. Zainul’s family and his followers will attend the programme. 
Like previous years, faculty of fine arts of Dhaka University and Zainul Smrity Sangrahasala will organises separate programmes marking the day in Dhaka.
The DU fine arts faculty has organised a three-day Zainul Mela on its premises, showcasing artworks by students and teachers of all eight departments of the faculty.
Moreover, the faculty will confer the prestigious Zainul Award on two eminent artists today. 
Born on December 29, 1914 in Kishoreganj of the then British India, Abedin grew passionate about arts in his early teens. 
He enrolled at Kolkata Government Art School in 1932 and completed with distinction. He, in fact, was the first Muslim student to obtain a first class first. Zainul joined the art school as a lecturer even before completing his final year.
The master artist came to limelight and earned wide recognition for his sketches of Bengal famine in 1943. These famine sketches, done in black ink on cheap brown paper, are still regarded as a testament to the starving and dying masses on the streets of Kolkata.
The artist had to leave Kolkata just after the partition in 1947 and he settled in Dhaka. In the next year, Zainul pioneered the establishment of an art institute in Dhaka, which was named Dhaka Art Institute.
Zainul became the principal of the institute at the beginning of 1949. The institute, now the Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University, became the hub of fine arts practices in the then East Pakistan.
In 1959, Zainul was conferred Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the highest government accord, by the Pakistan government.
He willingly went into retirement from the Dhaka Art Institute in 1967 and was conferred the honorary title of Shilpacharya (great master of fine arts) by the institute.
In 1970, Zainul painted a 65 feet narrative scroll titled Nobanna depicting the rural Bengal and another 29 feet scroll titled Monpura depicting the effect of the devastating cyclone that hit the coastal areas of the country.
In 1971, Zainul formed Charu O Karu Shilpi Sangram Parishad and also repudiated Hilal-e-Imtiaz. In 1973, Zainul received an honorary D.Litt from Delhi University. He was declared national professor in 1975.
He founded the Folk Art Museum at Sonargaon in Narayanganj, and Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala, a gallery of his own works, in Mymensingh in 1975.
The versatile artist died on May 28, 1976 after suffering from lung cancer for few years.

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