A collection of exquisitely embroidered quilts that belonged to shilpacharya Zainul Abedin are now on display at the Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhanmondi. The show, featuring 22 embroidered quilts and a collage of photographs of Zainul’s master pieces, has been organised by Bengal Foundation as part of its yearlong Zainul birth centenary programme. Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith and Zainul’s widow Jahanara Abedin jointly inaugurated the show on Tuesday.
Zainul Abedin, a pioneer of modern art in the region, collected these fascinating quilts around 1955 from the traditional artistes to promote traditional crafts. As embroidered quilt is one of the wellknown traditional crafts of this region, Abedin always emphasised its position in the corpus of artworks, said the experts.
The quilts on display show various styles of hand-embroidery that have been prevalent in Bangladesh. The art form is prevalently dominated by women artisans of the country and depicts their narratives in colourful designs and motifs.
The key features of traditional embroidery such as running stitch, embroidery stitch, basting stitch, chain stitch, cross stitch, pad stitch and whip stitch are common in the displayed quilts. Each of these forms is unique in terms of style, motifs and patterns.
Some of the quilts are decorated with figural representations of fishes, horses, tigers, flowers, while some others are fabricated with colourful geometric patterns, which make the modest dreams of the common people seem spectacular, especially to the urban viewers.
Niaz Zaman, along with Chandra Shekhor Saha, has written a prologue on the exhibition that elaborates styles and varieties of quilt making. ‘Kantha making in this region is a bit different from other quilting artistry. The stitching patterns of Bengal are simple, but those can be very delicate depending on the inclination of the maker’, said professor Niaz Zaman, who had also written a book titled The Art of Quilt Embroidery.
Visitors were found enjoying the quilts and the collage of photographs of Zainul’s master pieces with rapt attention. The collage contains famous works like Bamboo Fort of Titumir, Moulana Bhasani, Nobanna, Freedom Fighters, Famine Sketches, Monpura, Harvest and few others are on the canvas.
The show will be open to all from 12pm to 8pm till January 10.
As part of its yearlong Zainul centenary celebrations Bengal Foundation has already published two books on Zainul Abedin featuring the biography of the pioneering artist and organised a show displaying artworks by Zainul’s family members.
The foundation also plans to exhibit pottery works from Zainul’s collections in next May and to promote the master artist internationally through different other programmes.
-With New Age input
