English For Today chapter 7: People Who Stand Out

Unit Seven

People Who Stand Out

Learning outcomes

After we have studied this unit, we will be able to

• read and demonstrate the understanding texts through silent reading
• ask and answer questions
• listen to an audio text for specific information
• write a dialogue.

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Lesson 1: Zainul Abedin, The Great Artist

Figure: Zainul Abedin in 1955

Description: A black-and-white photograph of Zainul Abedin in 1955, shown from the chest up, wearing a light-coloured jacket over a shirt.

A. Work in pairs and discuss the following questions.

1. Do you know this person? Why is he famous?
2. Can you name some of his world famous sketches?

B. Now read the text below and complete the activities that follow.

Zainul Abedin (29 December, 1914 - 28 May, 1976) was a Bangladeshi painter. He had an extraordinary talent and was internationally recognized for his paintings. He became well known in 1944 through his series of paintings on the great man-made famine in Bengal during British Colonial rule.

He played a vital role in the art movement in Bangladesh and was the founding Principal of the Government Institute of Arts (Now Faculty of Fine Arts) at University of Dhaka. His paintings on Bengal Famine are considered as his most characteristic works. His homeland honoured him with the title ‘Shilpacharya’, or the great teacher of arts for his artistic and visionary qualities. He was a pioneer of the modern art movement and was rightly considered as the founding father of Bangladeshi modern arts.

Abedin was born in Kishoregonj on 29 December, 1914. He spent most of his childhood near the scenic banks of the Brahmaputra River. The river and the open nature inspired him from his early life. The Brahmaputra later appeared in many of his paintings and remained a great source of inspiration throughout his career. As his tribute to the river Brahmaputra, he drew a series of water colour

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paintings in this regard. This helped him earn Governor’s Gold Medal in all India Exhibition in 1938. This was the first time when he came under spotlight and this award gave Abedin the confidence to create his own visual style.

Abedin got admitted to the Government School of Art in Calcutta (Now Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata, India). Here, he learned European academic style for five years. Later, he joined the faculty of the same school after his graduation. He was the first Muslim student to obtain ‘First Class’ with distinction from the school. In 1951, Zainul went to London to study at Slade School of Art for two years. From the dissatisfaction of oriental style and the limitations of European academic style, he was attracted to realism. After his return from London, he started a new style called ‘Bengali Style’. Later he realized the limitations of ‘Bengali Style’. Therefore, he went back to nature, rural life and the daily struggles of men to make art that would be realistic but modern in appearance.

Figure: Struggle

Description: A black-and-white sketch depicting two bullocks straining to pull a cart through mud, with a man pushing from behind against a large wooden wheel.

Figure: Rebel cow

Description: A black ink drawing of a vigorous, agitated cow shown with curved horns and dynamic linework.

Figure: Rebel crow

Description: A painting of a lone black crow perched and turning its head to look behind.

Figure: Labourer couple

Description: A painting depicting two rural laborers, a man and a woman wearing wide-brimmed conical hats, walking together across a field.

Figure: Famine sketch

Description: An ink sketch on yellowish-orange paper depicting emaciated, skeletal figures of starving famine victims lying collapsed on the ground next to a small bowl.

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In 1943, he painted a series of sketches on the man-made famine, which had spread throughout Bengal. The famine killed thousands of people. The devastating famine touched his heart. He used Chinese ink and brush and drew sketches of the devastations of the famine on cheap packing paper. The series of those sketches are known as ‘Famine Sketches’. Through those sketches, he drew the helplessness and deprivation of the poor people, their miseries and death without having food. He painted those starving people who were dying by the roadside. These sketches are his most remarkable works, which spread his name and fame around the world as a famous and humanitarian artist. Abedin not only documented the famine but also showed its sinister face through skeletal figures of people fated to die of starvation. He depicted the inhuman story with very human emotions. These drawings became iconic images of human sufferings. These sketches helped him to find his way into a realistic approach that focused on human sufferings, struggle and protest. Through a 65 feet scroll, he depicted the mass movement of 1969 and with a 30 feet scroll painting called ‘Monpura’; he showed the devastating cyclone of 1970 and the sufferings of the people. Through the later sketch, he remembered the people who died in that calamity.

In 1975, Zainul Abedin set up a folk museum at Sonargaon and a gallery in Mymensingh named Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Museum. He became actively involved in a movement to preserve the heritage of Bengal and reintroduce Bengal art from the roots of Bengali culture. He passed away on 28 May, 1976 in Dhaka.

Sources: Banglapedia and wikipedia

C. Ask and answer the questions.

1. How did Zainul Abedin become famous?
2. What were the themes of his famous sketches?
3. Give information regarding his education.
4. How did river Brahmaputra influence his sketches?
5. After the failure of ‘Bengali style’, which style did he adopt for his sketches? Why?
6. Why is he called humanitarian artist?

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D. Why did he establish the ‘Folk Museum at Sonargaon’ and ‘Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Museum’ at Mymensingh?

E. Look at the pictures in the text. Work in group and talk about them. Then write briefly about what each picture portrays.

F. Now write a paragraph on one of the pictures in the text. If necessary, take help from ‘Google’.

G. Write an email to your friend about your recent visit to ‘Folk Museum at Sonargaon’.

Lesson 2: The Art of Silence

A. Look at the pictures. Get into pairs and ask and answer the following questions.

1. What can you see in the two pictures?
2. Do you think they are different from each other? Why?

Figure

Description: Two photographs side by side of two men: on the left, in everyday attire holding a pair of spectacles to his chin with a thoughtful expression; on the right, dressed as a mime with white facial makeup, striped shirt, and open-handed dramatic gesture.

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B. Read the text.

Culturally rich Bangladesh is the homeland of an artist whose fame took him across the border and honoured him with different national and international awards. Have you heard about Partha Pratim Majumder? He is a maestro performer of miming art.

If food is the nutrition for a body, art is the nutrition of soul. To keep the souls alive and fresh different arts like music, dance, paintings have evolved during the ancient time. Humankind has tried to express himself from the very beginning of civilization. These expressions have taken the forms of art with the touch of his creativity in expressing the untold in silence. It is an art of depicting a character, mood, idea, or narration through gestures and bodily movements without any utterance. This ancient dramatic entertainment represents the primitive time when people would use signs as a medium of communication.

In Bangladesh, the boy named Partha Pratim Mojumder from Pabna overwhelmed people with this Art. He left people mesmerized by his graceful presentations of art of silence. It was like a new era in theatre art in Bangladesh when Partha came with effort to make people look at their everyday experience, but in a new form. He made people reveal meanings for all trivial things of life which they usually would overlook. He used to depict stories of sadness, laughter, different characters, birds, insects or even animals through his miming. Some of his topics are the portrayal of a thief stealing, one-sided love, picking up flower and hurting it, delicate changes in nature etc. His actions often led audience to their conscience on different issues. He is regarded as the pioneer of miming in Bangladesh.

Partha cherished a passion for art from his very childhood. He was born in a very cultural minded family on 18 January in 1954. His photographer father nurtured him as a passionate lover of art. The family resided in a village called Kalachandpara. There used be a lot of cultural programmes in Kalachandpara in those days which had an impeccable influence on Partha’s affection for art.

Destiny introduced Partha to a mime artist Mr. Jogesh Dutta in 1966 when he went to live at his aunt’s home in Chandernagar, 30 kilometres away from Kolkata. Partha could foresee his future and got admission in Mr. Dutta’s mime academy in Kolkata. The major lift up of his life was when he presented a solo

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performance at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in 1979. The then French Ambassador in Bangladesh Mr. Loic Moreau, having observed his talent as an audience in that programme, offered him a scholarship at France.

Partha took all the opportunities to learn from Mr. Etienne Decroux and Mr. Marcel Marceau, both of whom were legendary genius of miming at that time in Paris. He was trained in the mime school called ‘Ecole Internationale de Mimodrame de Paris Marcel Marceau’. Gradually he became a very busy artist performing in Europe and America and he was highlighted in media too. Later on this Bangladeshi legendary mime artist received ‘the Moliere Award’ in the year 2009 which is the highest honourable accolade in the French Theatre. Next year, he was honoured with ‘Ekushey Padak’ for the contributing to Bangladesh. He was also awarded with Chevalier de I’odre des Art et des Letters’ (Knight in the order of Arts and Humanities) in 2012 for his contribution all over the world.

This great artist is now looking forward to opening an international miming institute in Bangladesh. We hope more Partha Pratim Majumder comes out from the dream institution.