“Without understanding his grammar, one cannot understand Sultan’s greatness,” said Syed Nizar, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Jahangirnagar University.
He was speaking at a dialogue titled The Awakening and Empowerment of the People in SM Sultan’s Paintings, organized by Samotgit Sanskriti Prangan at DrikPath Bhaban on Saturday.
“To understand Sultan, one must see that he was breaking something—much like Picasso or Dalí. Essentially, he was breaking the Western grammar of art,” Nizar explained. “Many appreciated but did not understand Sultan’s grammar; thus, they failed to understand his art. To express mental states, one can use symbols and break perspective, but that requires developing one’s own technique. Sultan broke the grammar to convey expression and content.”
According to him, Sultan’s career can be divided into two distinct phases: before the Liberation War, especially in the 1950s, and after 1971. “The Liberation War influenced several master painters, including Sultan. His main technique lies in those massive human figures,” Nizar noted.
Drawing a comparison with Renaissance art, he added: “Just as Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings, when seen from 20 metres below, do not appear large but seem imposing up close, Sultan’s technique also worked in that way. Critics of his time could not grasp it; many still cannot.”
Artist and organizer Amal Akash offered another perspective: “SM Sultan’s continuity could have developed; he could have become an institute himself. But this did not happen. I think Sultan created an idealized painting of villages that do not exist in reality.”
He referred to an interview where Sultan had said that in his painted villages, houses were not built with tin sheets or electricity poles. “Sultan is the first Bangladeshi artist for whom the question of life and nature became important for the Earth itself. That is the responsibility of artists and philosophers,” Akash remarked. He also lamented that no interview had ever explored Sultan’s philosophical journey.
Dhiman Sarkar Sagar, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Jahangirnagar University, reflected on the absence of industrialization in Sultan’s works. “There is no image or symbol of industrialization in his paintings. Is this some sort of utopia?” he asked, pointing to the underlying philosophy embodied in Sultan’s art.
Born on August 10, 1923, SM Sultan went on to become one of the most celebrated artists of Bangladesh. He received the Ekushey Padak and the Independence Day Award for his contribution to fine arts. The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy also honors his legacy by awarding the SM Sultan Gold Medal annually to a notable artist.