The Bangladesh National Museum has organised a month-long painting exhibition of the works of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Patua Quamrul Hassan to mark its 100th anniversary.
The biggest museum in Asia has put on display a total of a 100 paintings – 50 each by the two maestros – at the Nalinikanta Bhattashali Art Gallery.
The exhibition is part of the concluding programme of a two-year long celebration of hundred years of the museum.
It displays a rich archaeological interest, along with a host of metal and wooden sculptures, gold, silver and copper coins, stone inscriptions, copperplates, terracotta and other artifacts.
On August 7, 1913, Lord Carmichael, the then governor of Bengal, inaugurated the Dhaka Museum in a single room at the then Secretariat building, now the Dhaka Medical College. The Museum was opened for the public on August 25, 1914.
The Dhaka Museum was shifted to the Baraduari and Deuri of the Naib-Nazim of Dhaka in July 1915. Bangladesh National Museum, incorporating the Dhaka Museum, was established on September 20, 1983 and formally inaugurated on November 17 that year.
The centenary exhibition is displaying the Shilpacharya’s sketches and water colour works. His famine sketches in particular have won international acclaim. His drawing and wash on paper titled the Tidal Bore Victims is an iconic image of human suffering. The maestro painted this masterpiece in 1972. One of his sketches is titled The Struggle that portrays a man trying to move a bullock cart wheel stuck in the mud. Human emotions had always played a central role in his works, visible in most of his works on the famine. Other than all these, the Face of a Woman and Mother and Child had tinges of both elements of emotion and contemporary artistic sophistication.
Quamrul Hassan had also aptly represented the Bangalee culture through his work. The Folk Design shows his deep patriotism and awareness of the native folk culture. His series work Bride in charcoal and water colour depict the traditional rural bride of Bangladesh. Another water colour on paper of the National poet of Bangladesh Kazi Nazrul Islam is also on display. His rural village and Nabanna detailed the rural culture of the country.
Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury inaugurated the exhibition on December 22. The show will remain open until January 18.