Three cultural luminaries honoured with Zainul Memorial Awards

Faculty of Fine Arts of Dhaka University honoured two local and an Indian artists with Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Memorial Awards marking the 103rd birth anniversary of Zainul Abedin yesterday.
The faculty honours celebrated Bangladeshi artists Mustafa Monwar, Rafiqun Nabi and Indian artist Sanat Kar with the award at the opening ceremony of day-long Zainul Mela at Bakultala of FFA.
Cultural affairs minister Asaduzzaman Noor was present as chief guest at the award giving ceremony and inaugurated the fair, which features artworks and handicraft items made by students and teachers of FFA, cultural show, documentary screening and others.
Mustafa Monwar is a Bangladeshi artist. He is a painter, sculptor, radio performer and professor of fine arts. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2004 by the Government of Bangladesh. Monwar is the son of poet Golam Mostofa. He passed his matriculation exam from Narayanganj Government High School. He was initially admitted to the Scottish Church College of the University of Calcutta where he studied science. Following the advice of the author Syed Mujtaba Ali, he transferred to the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata from where he graduated obtaining best result in his class. Monwar started his career as lecturer at the East Pakistan College of Arts and Crafts. Later, he joined Bangladesh Television as director general. Later he became the director general of the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and the National Media Institute. He also served as a managing director of the FDC.

Rafiqun Nabi is well known for his paintings, woodcut prints and drawings. His paintings delightfully project the serene ambience of nature. Colours usually used by the artist are azure, yellow, ochre, red, black and emerald green -- representing rural Bengal. Nabi does figurative work, painting rural folk, fishermen, kingfishers, broken bridges, buffaloes, boats, crows, wild flowers, people at leisure and gossiping. His landscapes transport the viewer to a higher realm. The artist arranges motifs in different combinations of light and shade.
Sanat Kar was born in Calcutta in 1935. He joined the Government College of Art and Craft at Calcutta in 1950 after matriculation. In 1952, along with fellow-students Kar formed a group called The Artists' Circle. He graduated from the art college in 1955. Held teaching jobs first at Calcutta Boy's School and then in 1978 at Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati in Santiniketan. He worked for a while in Dilip Dasgupta's studio in the mid- '50s and played a major role in the formation of the Society of Contemporary Artists in 1960.