ART AND CRAFTS IN BANGLADESH
Artists in Bangladesh include painters, sculptors, potters, engravers of brass, weavers of cane mats and “jamdani” cloth; ship builders, rickshaw painters, makers of brass castes of Hindu and Buddhist deities Terra-cotta sculpture is a feature of temple and mosque architecture. The Bengali tradition of painting is displayed in religious scrolls and the walls of homes in rural Bengal. The work of Bengali weavers, potters, blacksmiths is admired for its technique and design.
According to “Cities of the World”: “Bangladeshi artistic expression is best expressed in its handicrafts: inlaid woodwork, brass, and pottery. Bangladeshi folk embroidery, "nakshi kantha," depicts realistic and stylized scenes or designs and may be found intricately stitched and greatly detailed or in rustic and simple form. Representational art shows a distinct traditional Moghul influence. Modern painters can also be found. [Source: “Cities of the World” , The Gale Group Inc. 2002]
On Bengali art, “Countries and Their Cultures” reports: “Most graphic arts fall within the domain of traditional production by Hindu caste groups. The most pervasive art form throughout the country is pottery, including water jugs and bowls of red clay, often with a red slip and incising. Some Hindu sculptors produce brightly painted works depicting Durga and other deities. Drawing and painting are most visible on the backs of rickshaws and the wooden sides of trucks. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
The distinction between art and functionalist are very thin. Many things that are considered art in the West are used in everyday life in Bangladesh. In “Art and Life in Bangladesh”, Henry Glassie wrote, "The process if skilled creation is not divided from quotidian flow. It belongs to the daily round of work, and even its most glorious products are meshed in commerce and destined for roles in human affairs."
Zainul Abedin is Bangladesh's most famous artist. His sketches of the Bengal Famine of 1943 are particularly famous. Other famous artists include Quuaiyum Chowdhurry, Kamrul Hassan, Anwarul Haque, Shafiuddin Ahmed and Shafiqual Amin. Sculptor Shamin Sikdar works despite threats from Muslim extremists.
Book: “Art and Life in Bangladesh” by Henry Glassie (Indiana University Press)
Modern Art Scene in Bangladesh
Atteqa Ali of the Metropolitan Museum of Art wrote: “The first years of the twenty-first century have been a critical time for Bangladesh. Although the arts are thriving, the political climate is unstable. Bangladesh” remains a “ poor, overpopulated nation. Through their sometimes political artwork, Bangladeshi artists contribute unique perspectives to the complex debates surrounding their countries. [Source:Atteqa Ali, Metropolitan Museum of Art]
“Art schools are the centers of artistic activity in these young nations today. In Bangladesh, Shilpakala Academy and the Institute of Fine Arts at Dhaka University are the main schools where students can enroll in classes ranging from painting to theater. New generations of artists in Bangladesh think critically about their society and its artistic heritage. They use a range of local methods and materials, from the jewel-like technique of miniature painting to elements of the vibrant mass culture. Yet these artists also embrace global modes, including abstract painting and video art.
“In Bangladesh, Runa Islam explores postmodern ideas in her art. Living and working in England, Islam develops cutting-edge videos on subjects ranging from the films of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder to the mechanics of vision. Shishir Bhattacharjee is known for his scathing political cartoons. More recently, he has made paintings in the style of Bengali film posters.”
Rickshaw Art
Perhaps, Bangladesh’s most visible folk art is its rickshaw art. AFP reports: A war of independence didn't stop him nor did two bouts of sectarian bloodshed and an Islamist military government, which banned his work. Bangladesh's famous rickshaw artist R.K. Das kept on painting.” This “wily 75-year-old’s “masterful depictions of Bollywood film stars in bright colours adorn tens of thousands of rickshaws in his native Dhaka. [Source: AFP, March 6, 2011]
“Rickshaws were first introduced in Bangladesh in the 1930s from Japan, where the three-wheeled vehicles were known as nintaku. The idea of decorating the leg-powered contraptions took off in Bangladesh the 1950s with the tradition following the simple yet colourful style then used by painters producing movie billboards.
““There are rickshaws in other parts of South Asia but nowhere are the vehicles so artistically decorated as in Dhaka — just as unique as painted trucks are to Pakistan," said Abdus Sattar, an oriental art professor at Dhaka University. “Decorating rickshaws was a way for drivers to compete for business — they wanted to make their vehicle as beautiful as possible to attract as many clients as they could," said Sattar. “So we saw the birth of a unique folk art form. It's a uniquely Bangladeshi craft. It's a people's art and its motifs are simple: cinemas, animals, landscapes or monuments," he said.
“Every inch of a rickshaw, from hood to spokes, is typically decorated but each vehicle also has a large tin plate set on the lower-back which features the most elaborate paintings. When Das first started painting rickshaw plates in 1953, rickshaw drivers would queue around the block to get his paintings of buildings, idyllic Bangladeshi landscapes or movie stars on their tin plate.
Rickshaw Art Declines Along with the Rickshaw
Rickshaw artist R.K. Das saw demand for his work decline as the car took hold in Bangladesh. “The golden age of rickshaw painting has passed," Das told AFP at his small workshop in the historic old quarter of the Bangladeshi capital. “When Dhaka was a small city, everyone used a rickshaw — even a groom would use a rickshaw to ride to his bride's house. Then, I would work day and night painting rickshaws; now, no one cares," he said with a sigh. [Source: AFP, March 6, 2011]
According to AFP: “Over the past three decades, Dhaka has transformed from a city of less than 100,000 people to a sprawling metropolis of 13 million people. As Dhaka has grown, rickshaws have fallen from grace. Some half a million of the slow-moving tricycles still ply Dhaka's streets, but they are now seen as a major cause of the city's crippling congestion, which forces commuters to spend an average of eight hours a day in jams. The government has repeatedly attempted to reduce the number of rickshaws in Dhaka, banning the unwieldy vehicles from using major intersections and refusing to issue new rickshaw licenses for the last five years.
“Some experts, such as Mohammad Rahmatullah, a former transport director at the United Nations, have even called for a total ban on rickshaws. “Dhaka can never be a modern city if rickshaws are not eliminated from main roads. The sooner Bangladesh realises this, the better," he told AFP. Public opposition has pressured the government into slowing its drive to rid the city of rickshaws and forced the World Bank to abandon a proposed programme to phase out the vehicles.
“Even so, the old airport in Dhaka's Tejgaon district offers a hint of the future: thousands of rickshaws confiscated during periodic police crackdowns on unlicensed vehicles have been dumped on the old runway, left to rot in the sun. As the rickshaw heads towards extinction, it takes with it one of Bangladesh's most distinctive art forms, said Sattar, the art professor. “You always felt good if you were on a neatly decorated rickshaw. These days people just want to move fast," Sattar said.
Pottery in Bangladesh
The art of pottery making thrives in the clay-rich delta area of Bangladesh, where at least at one time 680 villages each had an average of 50 potters. [Source: New York Times, March 8, 1998]
Famous Bangladeshi potters include Amulya Chandra Pal, known for his terra-cotta religious figures, cultural figures and toys: Maran Chand Paul, a modernist known for his decorative works; and Haripada Pal, described the historian Kathleen Foster as one of the "finest sculptors in the modern world."
The pottery craft is threatened in Bangladesh. Few members of the younger generation want to take up the craft and ceramic pots have been replaced by plastic bowls and aluminum pots. The same has happened to products made from copper and brass.
Traditional Art of Jamdani Weaving: Recognized by UNESCO
The traditional art of Jamdani weaving was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2013. According to UNESCO: Jamdani is a vividly patterned, sheer cotton fabric, traditionally woven on a handloom by craftspeople and apprentices around Dhaka. Jamdani textiles combine intricacy of design with muted or vibrant colours, and the finished garments are highly breathable. Jamdani is a time-consuming and labour-intensive form of weaving because of the richness of its motifs, which are created directly on the loom using the discontinuous weft technique. [Source: UNESCO]
Weaving is thriving today due to the fabric’s popularity for making saris, the principal dress of Bengali women at home and abroad. The Jamdani sari is a symbol of identity, dignity and self-recognition and provides wearers with a sense of cultural identity and social cohesion. The weavers develop an occupational identity and take great pride in their heritage; they enjoy social recognition and are highly respected for their skills. A few master weavers are recognized as bearers of the traditional Jamdani motifs and weaving techniques, and transmit the knowledge and skills to disciples. However, Jamdani weaving is principally transmitted by parents to children in home workshops. Weavers — together with spinners, dyers, loom-dressers and practitioners of a number of other supporting crafts — form a closely knit community with a strong sense of unity, identity and continuity.
Shital Pati Weaving of Sylhet Also Recognized by UNESCO
The traditional art of Shital Pati weaving of Sylhet was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2017. According to UNESCO: Shital Pati is the traditional art of making a handcrafted mat by weaving together strips of a green cane known as ‘Murta’. The mat is used by people all over Bangladesh as a sitting mat, bedspread or prayer mat. [Source: UNESCO]
The main bearers and practitioners are weavers living mostly in the low-lying villages in the greater Sylhet region of Bangladesh, but there are also pockets of Shital Pati weavers in other areas of the country. Both men and women participate in collecting and processing Murta, with women being more involved in the weaving process. The craft is a major source of livelihood and a strong marker of identity; primarily a family-based craft, it helps to reinforce family bonding and create a harmonious social atmosphere.
Mastery of the technique commands social prestige, and the practice empowers underprivileged communities, including women. The government promotes awareness of the element through local and national craft fairs, and Shital Pati communities are increasingly being organized into cooperatives to ensure the efficient safeguarding and transmission of the craft and guarantee its profitability. Safeguarding efforts involve the direct participation of the communities concerned and the practice is primarily transmitted from generation to generation within the families of craftspeople.
Golpo Art Gallery in Dhaka
Golpo Art Gallery in Dhaka is owned and run by the Dhaka-based, mega art-collecting couple Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, Rachel Cormack wrote in Robb Report: The Samdanis named their house Golpo, Bengali for “story” or “fairy tale.” The house, which stands in an affluent neighborhood of embassies, international hotels and luxury shopping, does justice to both definitions, telling of the couple’s passion for collecting. [Source: Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, May 10, 2020]
“Designed in collaboration with Brain Train Studio, a subsidiary of their Golden Harvest business conglomerate, and completed in 2012, Golpo is a hybrid of a home and a museum, manifesting the couple’s desire to live immersed in art from the ground floor on up. An LED sign reading sold out by Raqs Media Collective greets visitors into a space that, nearly devoid of furniture or other domestic trappings, resembles a mini gallery. British artist Ceal Floyer’s sound installation ’Til I Get It Right, in which Tammy Wynette melancholically sings, “I’ll just keep on ’til I get it right,” chimes among five colorful abstract tapestries by Bangladeshi modernist Rashid Choudhury, a hallucinatory Anish Kapoor mirror sculpture and late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid’s voluptuous sculpture-like sofa. “We heard Floyer’s sound piece in Documenta 13 in 2012 and fell in love with the determination in the lyrics,” explains Rajeeb, referring to the quinquennial art event that takes place in Kassel, Germany.
“The Samdanis rotate the art on display at Golpo every 18 months. “You don’t want art to sit in a warehouse,” Nadia says. But it’s not a simple process. “It takes almost three months to figure out, looking through the archive and deciding where to place it.” Then comes the lighting.
“The Samdanis’ engagement with international institutions has focused heavily on connecting Western audiences to the art of the couple’s part of the world. At the Tate, for instance, Rajeeb cofounded (and Nadia joined) the South Asian Acquisitions Committee to support acquisitions and loans of artworks from the region, and they have recently donated Choudhury tapestries to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Tate. A bridge between East and West is visible in Golpo as well. Works by Western and Eastern artists hang alongside each other, and at times an artist of one culture deals with the other directly, such as Pawel Althamer’s duo of skeleton-like human figures, Safik and Nahid, named after two Bangladeshis, which were exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2013. The Polish artist, a close friend of the couple’s, also gifted Rajeeb his favorite artwork in their collection, a painting Althamer created in collaboration with the couple’s three daughters for their father’s birthday a few years back.”
Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, Dhaka’s Mega Art Collectors
Rachel Cormack wrote in Robb Report: Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani had just placed their Haegue Yang commission, a tall, almost Seussian-looking sculpture titled North of the Mountain, by a floor-to-ceiling window on the fifth floor of their six-story house in Gulshan. The Berlin-based artist’s joyful piece, which invites viewers to join the fun by giving it a gentle push, thereby ringing its hundreds of tiny gold-colored bells, is the newest jewel in their growing cutting-edge modern and contemporary collection, which totals around 2,000 artworks. “You can try it later,” Rajeeb promises with a broad smile. [Source: Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, May 10, 2020]
“The Samdanis situated the sound work next to a second piece with a musical theme: a copper, granite and coal sculpture of long tubes that lead to what looks like the flared bell of a trumpet or trombone, a commission by another sought-after artist, Alicja Kwade. Together, the artworks epitomize many of the Samdanis’ collecting habits: They are by rising stars the collectors know personally, are acquired on the globe-trotting couple’s travels like souvenirs and, while not lacking conceptual rigor, have a touch of whimsy.
“The couple’s devotion to their art is so fervid that it takes precedence over their house’s architecture. “We will build or knock down a wall to accommodate another work,” Nadia says. “We’ve acquired the art and then built the right space for it, not vice versa.” Raising children in an art-filled environment was less of a challenge than they expected, Nadia says, noting their daughters grew up knowing to touch with their eyes, not their hands. “Whenever they had play dates,” she adds, “they needed to explain to their friends these were not toys to play with.” Nadia caught the collecting bug from her parents, though the art of her own childhood was a far cry from a sound installation or an interactive sculpture. “My parents are still surprised when we buy a disc or a written agreement as art,” she notes with a smile. After studying economics and management at Independent University in Bangladesh, she initially collected based on the aesthetic she learned at home. Her first acquisition, at age 22, was a canvas depicting peasant life by her country’s pioneering avant-garde painter SM Sultan.
“After she married Rajeeb, who owned a painting by well-known Bangladeshi artist Zainul Abedin but did not consider himself a collector, the two began a transition toward contemporary art, one she describes as “an organic learning process through reading and traveling.” At first, they still felt comfortable with South Asian art. They bought paintings by Indian modernists, such as M. F. Husain and F. N. Souza, and then came a Rembrandt etching, currently hanging in their bedroom, followed by Picasso drawings and Salvador Dalí sculptures. But then, as they traveled more widely and began frequenting fairs and galleries, Nadia found herself drawn to living artists making art in our own era. “I can’t tell you when exactly I found myself looking at contemporary art, but I know it was a natural reaction to better connecting with what artists are saying today,” she says, exuding confidence in her choices. “If we are not at our offices, Rajeeb and I are either having dinner or seeing a show with a bunch of artist friends, just like how we started learning about contemporary art in the first place.”
Rajeeb Samdani was born in 1974. His family is from Sylhet, a tea-growing region in northeast Bangladesh. He is the managing director of Golden Harvest Group, a leading Bangladeshi conglomerate with stakes in food, real estate, technology, logistics and information technology. He is the founding committee member and co-chair of the Tate Museum in London and founding member of Harvard’s Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute's Arts Advisory Council. He started his career as a commodity broker with Stemcor. Over the years, his company, Golden Harvest, expanded its business into information technology, commodities, logistics, food processing, agriculture, dairy, aviation, insurance, banking, infrastructure development and real estate. He is also the chairman of Dubai-based financial institution Gulf International Finance Limited. Golden Harvest has expanded business into logistics industry with its Japanese partner Nippon Express, the largest logistic company in Asia and the fourth largest logistic company in the world. In partnership with Jubilant FoodWorks Limited, Golden Harvest has launched the francise of Domino's Pizza in Bangladesh in 2019. [Source: Wikipedia]
Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani’s Art Collection
Rachel Cormack wrote in Robb Report: “Well immersed in the international art world,” the Samdanis have amassed works by a who’s who of contemporary artists over the past decade, with a fine balance between South Asian and global names, primarily from Asia and Europe. They have also shrewdly snapped up pieces by emerging stars, such as a semi-digital painting by the 33-year-old hot ticket Avery Singer. In the process, the Samdanis have made a name for themselves as prominent collectors — appearing on ARTnews’s Top 200 Collectors list — and as philanthropists, founding the Samdani Art Foundation and the Dhaka Art Summit. [Source: Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, May 10, 2020]
“The collection is a testimony to acquiring purely from personal connection with a work, which mainly stems from friendships they’ve cultivated with artists. The couple fetched Wilhelm Sasnal’s lush painting Untitled (The Kiss) during their visit to Warsaw for a re-staging of an exhibition from the fourth Dhaka Art Summit, A beast, a god, and a line, at the Museum of Modern Art there in 2018. The house’s most controversial piece, arguably, is Lost and Found, Pakistani artist Huma Mulji’s haunting human figure made out of buffalo hide. Originally in the entry gallery, it was moved to a more discreet location, reportedly upon requests from staff who were troubled by the sculpture’s eerie expression and decayed skin.
“Their tastes are catholic, reaching across not only cultures but also styles, genders and generations. There are paintings by artists of the African diaspora, including the onetime Young British Artist Chris Ofili and Kenyan-born rising star Michael Armitage. Pioneering American feminist artist Lynda Benglis’s poetic sculpture Wing, made of painted folded-wire mesh, hangs above eye level, akin to a bird, perched over a romantic monochrome painting by the late Italian Ettore Spalletti in the living room. Art even peppers the rooftop, where the couple has been known to host gatherings that end with a few guests plunging into the pool: Inside the roof’s enclosed section, British icon Tracey Emin’s pink neon text declares, trust yourself.
Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani’s Art Foundation
Rachel Cormack wrote in Robb Report: “The couple started their foundation in 2011 to foster visibility of Bangladeshi artists in and outside the country, and the following year launched the Dhaka Art Summit, a biannual intensive art and architecture extravaganza, which wrapped its fifth installment, Seismic Movements, in mid-February. Organized by Brussels- and Dhaka-based American curator Diana Campbell Betancourt, the nine-day affair — a compact version of global art-circuit events such as the Venice Biennale or the Sharjah Biennial — attracted international attendees as well as a local crowd. “We never have a problem with attendance here. Our people will always come to a music or dance performance,” says Nadia, proven right by the 476,000 summit visitors who came to see a group exhibition, free of charge, featuring some 500 artists, including Ellen Gallagher, Candice Lin, Héctor Zamora, Adrián Villar Rojas and Korakrit Arunanondchai. At each summit, the Samdani Art Award grants one local artist a residency at London’s Delfina Foundation. [Source: Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, May 10, 2020]
“Nadia says she and Rajeeb intended the summit to fill the need for institutionalization of modern and contemporary art in a city of 21 million. A nation that is not quite a half-century old, Bangladesh survived a painful separation from Pakistan in 1971, and support for the arts has been overlooked during the country’s revitalization efforts. Today, the Samdani Art Foundation seeks to make up for the absence of a dedicated modern art museum or art market. “It connects regional art practices in Asia with each other and with neighbors, while many borders are constantly being re-negotiated and remain conflicted,” says Indian artist Bharti Kher, whose mud-and-clay female figure Intermediaries, commissioned by the foundation, was on view outdoors during the summit.
“The couple’s mission continues to grow with Srihatta, the foundation’s upcoming brick-and-mortar space for exhibitions and a residency program, plus a sculpture park, scheduled to open in 2021 in the northeastern city of Sylhet, hometown to both Samdanis. Designed by Bangladeshi architect Kashef Mahboob Chowdhury, the art center will open with a group exhibition organized by Campbell Betancourt, who also serves as the foundation’s artistic director and chief curator. Entitled Luminous Echo, the show will feature heavy hitters working with sound and light, such as Olafur Eliasson, Lucy Raven, Anthony McCall and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. Coming entirely from the foundation’s collection, the show is about “waves of light and sound movements that reside in our memories at different speeds,” says Campbell Betancourt, who also helps the couple rotate their collection in Golpo, as well as in the office and factory spaces of Golden Harvest. “They are the dream art patrons for a curator to work with, because they love art and artists, but they’re not trying to be the curators.”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022