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S.M. Sultan: The golden man of fine arts

Ershad Kamol
Today is die 85th birth anniversary of legendary artist Sheikh Mohammad Sultan popularly known as S.M. Sultan (1923-1994) alias Lal Mia. Born on 10 August 1923 at Masimdia, a village in Narail district, S.M. Sultan is considered one of the greatest painters in the sub-continent.
For his unique expression of portraying divinity as well as the inner strength of human soul, Sultan is ranked amongst the world masters. Art lovers across the world consider him as the voice of Asia for his outstanding ability of depicting the strength of masses in their struggle for survival against the odds.
On many huge canvases, mosdy in oil, but some in striking watercolours, Sultan painted human figures, symbolically representing the characteristics of the nation's struggle. In Sultan's paintings the dominance of man over nature is absolute. Man does not remain with nature, man rules nature.
The heroes of his huge canvases are ordinary agricultural labourers, fishermen, simple householders, and toiling men and women. Sultan narrates the tales of these ordinary people magnificently, which represent our culture. The figures of men pose an enigma, since their large muscular and strong bodies contrast oddly with the emaciated physique of real life farmers and fishermen wasted by hard labour and hunger.
The son of an ordinary mason, S.M. Sultan had to struggle a lot at the initial stage of his life. He dropped out from school just after completing his primary education. However, his talent as an artist was evident from his boyhood. Following the trend of
rural artisans, the child Sultan, popular amongst the locals as Lal Mia, used to used to draw with charcoal and paint with raw turmeric and puin (vegetables) fruits. Seeing his good hand and passion for art the zamindar of the area, Dhirendranath Roy, encouraged him to be a profes-
sionalartist.
To help him reach his goal the Zamindar patronised him to continue education at Victoria Collegiate School in Narail and used to give him books featuring paintings by foreign artists. But without passing matriculation Sultan went to study art in Cal-
cutta in 1938 at the Government School of Art. With the help of another patron, Shahed Suhrawardy, who was a member of the governing body of the School, Sultan entered the Art School, though he had no academic requirements to be enrolled at the school.
Because of a strong bohemian streak in his character, though Sultan did not complete his education. After three years in the art school, he left and chose to work as a freelance artist.
As a freelance artist he wandered through at different parts of India. During World War 11, Sultan used to draw the portraits of white soldiers to earn his bread and butter. As a result, no work from this period survives, not even photographs as Sultan was totally indifferent to the preservation of his works.
During his bohemian days abroad, particularly in Kashmir, Sultan used to paint landscapes featuring the distinctive natural beauty of the area. His mastery of portraying a realistic view of natural serenity on canvas confuse the viewers as to whether are they photographs or paintings. The paintings, especially his portrayal of human figures in those days, are unlike those of his later works.
After the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, he returned to N^il. J^ again. wondw?4,W, rpapy parts of Pakistan, 0$ and European courtiers. Sultan exhibited paintings in New York, Washington, Chicago, and Boston, and later in London. Finally he returned 1953 and subsequently settled in Narail.
From the beginning Sultan was a master of landscape paintings. One is struck by his drama of light and shade around natural elements such as lone trees and paddy fields. The painter por-
trayed the scene of men at works in various types of village scenes with abundance of sky, fields, riverbanks, clouds, woods and cottage shelters.
What draws one most in Sultan's works is the amazing variety of styles he uses. Another important feature of his paintings is the ample use of vibrant colours. Sometimes, on Sultan's canvas, the order of colours reaches the highest levels of excellence. As a result, the forms also reach a peak.
Because of Sultan's tendency of portraying muscular plethora in his figures of men, some art connoisseurs find influence of European Renaissance tradition in his works. However, Sultan totally assimilated that influence into his own simplistic style of representation of women's veil. His women- supple-breasted and graceful belongs to the old Indian tradition.
Instead of delicate lines Sultan uses strong curved lines, and flat body tones so that they do not stand apart from the crowd of active males. The lines are powerful and full blown. Sultan tended to work heavily all over his canvas without leaving any empty space.
At the time when Sultan was facing financial problems, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy organised his exhibition in 1976, which again drew the attention of urban dwellers for the artist.
ShilpakaJa Academy awarded Sultan, a. special stipend.and Status of Resident Artist, But, the bohemian artist again turned his back on institutional work and left for Narail to live a quiet isolated life.
In Narail, he built a school for children, and a menagerie. He lived in a house peopled by cats and snakes. The golden man of fine arts died on October 10,1994. During his last days he used to teach paintings to children.