11 Art Bengal.Pdf Kolkata, India

Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design ISSN 2231-4822 www.chitrolekha.com Email: [email protected] Volume V, Number 1, 2015 Themed Issue on “Visual Culture in the Indian Subcontinent” Editors Abstracting, Indexing and Database Sreecheta Mukherjee Listing Independent Researcher The Chitrolekha Magazine has been Tarun Tapas Mukherjee included in a number of prestigious Assistant Professor, Bhatter College, Paschim Medinipur, India. directories and university libraries: Editorial Board WorldCat Amit Guha EBSCO Independent art-historian EBSCOMAGS Debanjali Banerjee Google Scholar Assistant Professor in National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata ProQuest Dorina Michaelis Simon Fraser University Independent Researcher on South Asian Art, Berlin, Germany University of California Kamal Banerjee UC Davies University Journalist, member of INTACH & Paschim Banga Itihas Samsad Maryland Institute College of Art Dr. Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai National Library of Sweden Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication American Association for the (SIMC- UG), Pune. Advancement of Science Manoj Kr. Mukherjee The University of Auckland Research Scholar, Visva Bharati University, West Bengal, India. Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Milankanti Satpathy Sozialforschung, Berlin Assistant Professor, Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia, India. Sayed Ahmed University of Saskatchewan Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Bangladesh University, Dhaka, Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg Bangladesh. University of Hamburg Shyamal Chatterji University of Heildelberg Independent Researcher University of Macau, China Sudha Jagannath University Technology of Sidney Brihannayika Culture Resource, New Delhi. The Social Science Research Center Tathagata Neogi Berlin, Swedish South Asian Studies Researcher in Archaeology, University of Exeter, Devon, UK. Network/Lund University Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro Research anthropologist, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad, Pakistan. This Open Access article is distributed freely online under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). This allows an individual user non- commercial re-use, distribution, sharing and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited with links. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected]. © Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design Art of Bengal: the communal art appreciation of world’s most fertile Delta A journey for bewildered search of own identity Sayed Ahmed Bangladesh University, Bangladesh Abstract The softness of river line soil has softened our minds, which gave the opportunity for the ancient artists of this most fertile delta of the world, comprised of approximately 700 rivers, to draw coarse lines over muddy surface and to mold any shape by fingers, a hypothetical beginning of art in this land. After Pala consequence, synthesis of Islam and Hinduism in rural culture gave birth of Bengal’s own artistic language during medieval period, where art was something inherent, instinct and intuitive. Folk art was not; even still not iconoclastic but the study of nature is prior to there. Bengal art had been possible only for the thirst to acquire precise negotiation with the surrounding nature. This observation resulted in a metaphysical fancy and was relevant in all forms of art. It represents the emotion of our community, not of the individuals. Thus the artists are lost, in the womb of past but not their arts. Prominence of folk literature had shaped the art of Bengal. From Bengal renaissance to Modernism, it is obvious that all of the artists wanted to search a common answer of a very simple question- what is art of our own! The question echoed in the realm of folk arena, where they all bowed and sought help, got enriched but there were conjoint dissatisfaction too: success without any specific response. Art of Bengal is synonymous to the art of folklore. It was, it is and it will be. Keywords: Bengal art, Folk art, Folk literature, Artistic Morphology, Aesthetics and Schooling of Visual Arts. Preamble In this study, visual materials of art are not discussed in detail for critical issues but the folklore essence and its morphology in every art form regardless of their category are going to be the focal concern of this discussion. Here, genealogy of Bengal art will roam through a macro level; from Pala art to Modernism and even crafts but the folklore spirit will earn the clues to rediscover our way to contemplate. If folk art is compared to the spontaneous drift, then the artists of each era are only the fetchers from the shore. Thus political issues might be contextual for the art of medieval, colonial periods Figure 1: Rice powder to decorate the fenestration of and late 60’s and readers may get indication when needed but mud hut, village Mauna, Gazipur Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design, (ISSN 2231-4822), Vol. 5, No. 1, 2015 URL of the Issue: www.chitrolekha.com/v5n1.php Available at www.chitrolekha.com/V5/n1/11_Art_Bengal.pdf Kolkata, India. © www.chitrolekha.com 97 Chitrolekha International Magazine on Art and Design, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2015 they are not elaborately pursued here. Let us consider that the human civilization began here from early dates back to 450 BC in Wari-Bateshwar, todays Narshingdi District. There should have a developed culture of art. (Hoque, 2013) But Mother Nature has its own commandments. Winning the artistic and archaeological levy, these rivers comprised the most fertile delta of the world. Thus the Ganges took the appellation of ‘Kirtinasha’1 in Hindu scripts. In fact, the bloods of Bengal’s own veins have washed her glorious attainments of past. Primitivism2 may give us a hypothetical answer with condolence: ‘Art criticism is either harmful or useless.’ The pronoun ‘I’ represent ‘us’: it is somewhat self- denial or self-praising and against all kind of ownership. When the first artist created the first bamboo bucket, for example; on behalf of all men- was not an art? Their name has been lost in the womb of the past forever. For the conventional thinking of art, this was a cerebral question of the creation. Here the ‘selfness’ is important, not in a sense of ‘selfishness’. This cooperative tradition of folk art blended with the daily needs and thus was recognized as functional art. The empirical point is, folk culture is conceived as special kind of artifact (Bhaskar, 2006) which is still contextual. Figure 2: Nakshi Pitha, In the 68000 villages of traditional desserts and Bangladesh, housewives are busy delicacies: the art of consumption, courtesy by with leisurely works like photographer Maruf Rayhan embroidery, decorative pillow covering, hand fans of palm leaves and many other artifacts. Cooking, sewing, floor paintings, costumes of the female represent the lion’s share of aesthetics in this regard. To exemplify, the flat landscape might have been responsible for simplified dress like Sari of woman, only a piece of cloth without any joint. In addition, oriental dresses of women have long parts from shoulders to hand with a lot of variations in colors, because here dress is also an art piece. Nobody told us to design our life- style in this way. It might be compared to the acquisition of Figure 3: TepaPutul, linguistic skills of a child, who already knows how to collected from Faridpur communicate with its mother by precarious words but still wants to learn the language from her. 1One who destroys the achievements 2 Art is not an isolated phenomenon. It is part of a culture, linked up with the history of the culture and with the history of the people. It ranges from products of different races, mentalities, temperaments and historical events to influences of environment. Every society has developed a specific style by giving preference to certain objects and patterns or certain arrangements of lines and spaces. 98 Art of Bengal: the communal art appreciation of world’s most fertile Delta Again, why we like fairy tales? These poor people suffered bitter experiences of reality knowing well that reality is not as pretty and stunning as these tales are. Bengal art is an artistic truth, not the realistic one. It generates a sense of pleasure, whether beauty is achieved or not. Our Journey of art appreciation starts from the fancy of literature, an aesthetics embedded in a motto that ‘not to understand the art’. If mystery becomes faded then everything is understood and nothing to console the human mind: ‘One has wasted; one will be wiser’! What Uniqueness Belongs to Bengal Art? Art can be only realized by the fluidity of time. For example, Tepa Putol3 found in Indus valley is surprisingly still practiced all over the subcontinent with the same skills, thus the same configuration achieved. The Plasticity of river soil was the opportunity for artists. This is true for every civilization developed on the banks of rivers. Rivers were worshipped as form of mother here; it relates the mother iconology of Figure 4: Krishna with his consorts, manuscript cover painting in totemics. wood; collected from Palong, Shariatpur, 18th century. Courtesy by National museum of Dhaka. The pictorial inscriptions on palm leaves and the terracotta plaques4 from the Pala period are the unique and identical features in Bengal art. During the Pala dynasty5, art reached its culmination in the realm of oriental art. Without Pala Figure 5: Vaishnava manuscript

Load more