Untitled (Santhal Women)

In 1947, the year of the partition of the Indian subcontinent, Zainul Abedin moved from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Dhaka, the capital of present day Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). In Calcutta, Abedin had been a student and an art teacher, and was deeply influenced by the political environment of his time and by artists like Atul Bose, Jamini Roy (lots 241-245), Ramkinkar Baij and Chittaprosad Bhattacharya (lot 253). Profoundly moved by events like the devastating famine in Bengal in 1943, “Abedin has been one of the few painters who have, from the outset, recognised the necessary relationship of art to life. He revolted against the suppression of subject matter drawn from life, which Abanindranath and his followers were inclined to do, and unlike them he found much grandeur in the common man [...] The simplicity of execution and complete disregard of details, necessitated by an emotional urgency in the sketches, guide his later work, to explore aesthetic possibilities inherent in the subject. His predilection for linear harmonies has strong affinity with the Bengali folk artist; the corporal aspect of mass is never much developed. His stylization is not merely a manner taken from the village artist, it is based on a genuine desire to convey the essential poetry, rhythms and colours of nature.” (I. ul Hassan, Painting in Pakistan, Lahore, 1991, pp. 54-56)