The 111th birth anniversary of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin, widely regarded as the founding figure of modern art in Bangladesh, is being marked today through tributes and remembrance programs that celebrate his enduring cultural legacy.
Across Dhaka, institutions and admirers are revisiting Abedin’s work not only as artistic expression but also as a powerful chronicle of social history. At Dhaka University, representatives of the Faculty of Fine Arts, alongside members of Abedin’s family, paid their respects in the morning by placing floral wreaths at his grave on the campus.
However, due to the ongoing sociopolitical situation and vacation at the university, the traditional ‘Zainul Mela’ under the banner of Zainul Uthshab, which has been held regularly by the Dhaka University Faculty of Fine Arts and Bangladesh Folk Art & Crafts Foundation since 2009, is not being held this year. The ‘Zainul Award’ for the year 2025 has also been put on hold, according to DU faculties and officials.
Born on December 29, 1914, in Kishoreganj during British rule, Abedin’s artistic sensibility was shaped by his early life along the Brahmaputra River. The river, its people and rural rhythms became recurring elements in his work and later defined his artistic identity.
Abedin studied at the Government Art School in Calcutta from 1933 and later joined its faculty. He gained international attention through a series of stark drawings documenting the Bengal famine of 1943. Created with black ink on cheap brown paper, these works remain among the most compelling visual accounts of human suffering in colonial South Asia.
After the partition of India in 1947, Abedin moved to Dhaka and became a central figure in establishing institutional art practice in the region. In 1948, he led the founding of the Dhaka Art Institute, which would later become the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dhaka University and the heart of modern art education in East Pakistan.
He served as principal of the institute from 1949 and was awarded Pakistan’s highest civilian honour, the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, in 1959. Abedin later stepped away from institutional life in 1967 and was formally recognised as Shilpacharya for his pioneering role in art and education.
In his later years, Abedin produced large-scale works that captured both rural life and national trauma, including the 65-foot scroll Nabanna and the 32-foot Manpura ’70, reflecting the devastation caused by the 1970 cyclone. During the political unrest preceding the Liberation War, he took an active role in cultural resistance by forming the Charu O Karu Shilpi Sangram Parishad in 1971 and renouncing his state honour in protest against the Pakistani military regime.
Following independence, Abedin received an honorary Doctor of Letters from Delhi University in 1973 and was appointed National Professor in 1975. That same year, he founded the Folk Art Museum in Sonargaon and established the Zainul Abedin Sangrahashala in Mymensingh to preserve his artistic heritage.
Zainul Abedin died on May 28, 1976, after suffering from lung cancer. Today, his works are held in major public collections, including the Bangladesh National Museum, where they continue to inspire artists, scholars and audiences alike.
