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{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = SM Sultan
| native_name = এস এম সুলতান
| native_name_lang = bn
| image = SM Sultan Self-portrait.jpg
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption = Self-Portrait
| birth_name = Sheikh Mohammed Sultan
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1923|8|10}}
| birth_place = Machimdia village, [[Narail District]], [[Bengal Presidency]], British India
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1994|10|10|1923|8|10}}
| death_place = [[Jessore (city)|Jessore]], Bangladesh
| resting_place = Narail, Bangladesh
| nationality = [[British Indian]] (1923–1947)<br />[[Pakistani]] (1947–1971)<br /> [[Bangladeshi]] (1971–1994)
| education = [[Government College of Art & Craft|Government School of Art]]
| known_for = Painting, drawing
| notable_works = {{plainlist |
* ''First Plantation'' (1975)
* ''Char Dakhal'' (1976)
* ''Harvesting'' (1986)
* ''Fishing-3'' (1991)
}}
| awards = {{awd |award=[[Ekushey Padak]] |year=1982}}
{{awd |award=Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award |year=1986}}
{{awd |award=[[Independence Day Award]] |year=1993}}
}}

'''Sheikh Mohammed Sultan''' ({{lang-bn|শেখ মহম্মদ সুলতান}}; 10 August 1923 – 10 October 1994), popularly known as '''S M Sultan''', was a [[Bengali people|Bengali]] decolonial artist who worked in painting and drawing. His fame rests on his striking depictions of exaggeratedly muscular Bangladeshi peasants engaged in the activities of their everyday lives.<ref name=samaj/> Sultan's early works were influenced by western technics and forms, particularly impressionism, however, in his later works particularly, works exhibited in 1976, we discover there is a constant temptation to decolonize his art technics and forms.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Colonization of Indian Art and Sultan (ভারতশিল্পের উপনিবেশায়ন ও সুলতানের বিউপনিবেশায়ন ভাবনা)|last=Nizar|first=Syed|publisher=Chaitanya Publishing House|year=2017|isbn=978-98-49-271154|location=Sylhet, Bangladesh.}}</ref>

For his achievement in fine arts he was awarded with the [[Ekushey Padak]] in 1982; the Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award in 1986; and the [[Independence Day Award]] in 1993.<ref name=bdnews/> His works are held in several major collections in Bangladesh, including the [[Bangladesh National Museum]], the [[National Art Gallery (Bangladesh)]], the S.M. Sultan Memorial Museum, and the Bengal Foundation.

==Early life==
Sultan was born in Machimdia village, in what was then Jessore District, [[British India]] (now [[Narail District]], Bangladesh) on 10 August 1923. After five years of primary education at Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, he went to work for his father, a mason. Even as a child he felt a strong artistic urge. He seized every opportunity to draw with charcoal, and developed his talent depicting the buildings his father worked on.<ref name=german/> Sultan wanted to study art in [[Kolkata|Calcutta (Kolkata)]], but his family did not have the means to send him. Eventually, he secured financial support from the local [[zamindar]] and went to Calcutta in 1938.<ref name=Banglapedia/>

Meanwhile, Sultan joined Allama Mashriqi's Khaksar movement in British India. Mustafa Zaman in his article entitled "Revisiting Lal Mia’s vision" wrote: "His fluid movements through myriad social geographies and his proximity with some unique personalities, his engagement with Allama Mashriqi’s Khaksar movement that sought to organise the ‘self’ and ‘Muslim sociality’ to lay the ground for decolonisation; and his sojourns in America and Europe prepared him for his canvases which soon became populated with muscular men and women. These were obvious references to the peasant population he became part of".<ref>{{cite news |last=Mustafa |first=Zaman |date=10 August 2019 |title=Revisiting Lal Mia's vision |url=http://www.newagebd.net/article/81178/revisiting-lal-mias-vision |work=New Age}}</ref>

There poet and art critic [[Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy]] restyled him S. M. Sultan and offered him accommodation in his home and the use of his library.<ref name=german/> Sultan did not meet the admissions requirements of the [[Government College of Art and Craft|Government School of Art]], but in 1941 managed to get in with the help of Suhrawardy, who was on the school's governing body.<ref name=Banglapedia/><ref name="foundation"/> Under Principal [[Mukul Chandra Dey]] the school deemphasized the copying of [[Old Masters]] and moved beyond Indian mythological, allegorical, and historical subjects. Students were encouraged to paint contemporary landscapes and portraits expressing original themes from their own life experience.<ref name=samaj/>

==Career==

===Indian and Pakistani period===
Sultan left art school after three years, in 1944, and traveled around India. He earned his living by drawing portraits of Allied soldiers encamped along his route. His first exhibition was a solo one in Shimla, India, in 1946.<ref name="german"/> Next, after [[Partition of India|Partition]], came two individual exhibitions in Pakistan: Lahore in 1948 and Karachi in 1949. None of his artworks from this period survived, mainly due to Sultan's own indifference towards preserving his work.<ref name=Banglapedia/><ref name=tipu/>

The [[Institute of International Education]] (IIE) in New York ran an International Arts Program that brought exceptionally promising foreign artists between the ages of 25 and 35, selected jointly by their country's ministry of education and the IEE, to the United States for a stay of several weeks. The institute provided round-trip transportation and grants for living expenses. The program included visits to museums, a period of creative work or study at a school, consultations with leading American artists, and exhibition of the visitors' work.<ref>{{cite book |author= |title=Institute of International Education 32nd Annual Report |url=http://www.iie.org/~/media/Files/Corporate/AR/1951-IIE-Annual-Report.ashx |format=PDF |location=New York |publisher=Institute of International Education |page=28,31 |date=1951 |access-date=30 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= |title=The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1950 |url=http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/09171adf-c1fc-4866-90a5-4f3eb35b1992-1950.pdf |location=New York |publisher=Rockefeller Foundation |page=256 |date=31 December 1950 |access-date=30 July 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= |title=The Rockefeller Foundation Annual Report 1951 |url=http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/uploads/files/53029ed3-55f0-4cce-a6b8-20b40ed46932-1951.pdf |location=New York |publisher=Rockefeller Foundation |page=84 |date=31 December 1951 |access-date=30 July 2022}}</ref>

Sultan's official selection by the government in Karachi made it possible for him to visit the United States in the early 1950s,<ref group=note>''S.M. Sultan and His Paintings'' and Banglapedia give 1950 as the date of Sultan's visit to the United States. The "Independence Award Listing Details" says it was 1951. According to IEE and Rockefeller Foundation annual reports, the 1951–1952 school year was the first in which Pakistan participated in IEE's International Arts Program.</ref><ref name=cabinet/> and exhibit his work at the IEE in New York; at the YMCA in Washington, D.C.;<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fatima-Jinnah-address-for-Sultan-Artist.jpg Fatima Jinnah's speech at the opening ceremony of S M Sultan's exhibition at YWCA]</ref> in Boston; at the International House of the University of Chicago; and at Michigan University, Ann Arbor. Later he traveled to England, where he participated in the annual open-air group exhibition at Victoria Embankment Gardens, Hampstead, London.<ref name=german/><ref name=Banglapedia/>

The following year, while teaching art at a school in Karachi, he came into contact with leading Pakistani artists [[Abdur Rahman Chughtai]] and [[Shakir Ali (artist)|Shakir Ali]], with whom he developed a lasting friendship. After a period living and painting in [[Kashmir]], Sultan returned to his native Narail in 1953. He settled down in an abandoned building overlooking the [[Chitra River]], where he lived with an eclectic collection of pets.<ref name=Banglapedia/><ref name=dictionary/> He lived close to the land and far from the outside art world for the next twenty-three years, developing a reputation as a whimsical recluse and a Bohemian.<ref name=german/><ref name=textbook/>

[[Image:SM Sultan Untitled Landscape (1952).jpg|thumb|SM Sultan. ''Untitled'' (1952). Watercolor on card.]]
Sultan's drawings, such as his self-portrait, are characterized by their economy and compactness. The lines are powerful and fully developed. His early paintings were influenced by the Impressionists. In his oils he employed Van Gogh's impasto technique. His watercolors, predominantly landscapes, are bright and lively.<ref name=Banglapedia/><ref name=dastagir/>

The themes of his paintings are nature and rural life.<ref name=Banglapedia/> S Amjad Ali, writing in 1952 for Pakistan Quarterly, described Sultan as a "landscape artist." Any human figures in his scenes were secondary. In Ali's view Sultan painted from memory in a style that had no definite identity or origins.<ref name=dastagir/>

===Bangladeshi period===
Between Sultan's 1969 individual exhibition at the Khulna Club, Khulna, and the first National Art Exhibition (a group exhibition), in Dhaka, in 1975,<ref name=nree/> a transformation took place in his work.<ref name=tipu/><ref name=dastagir/>

[[Image:SM Sultan Char Dakhal (1976).jpg|thumb|SM Sultan. ''Char Dakhal'' (1976). Bengal Foundation.]]
Agricultural laborers engaged in everyday activities such as ploughing, planting, threshing, and fishing took center stage on his canvases. The landscape – farmland, rivers, villages – was still present, but as a backdrop. What was distinctive about his figures, such as those in ''Char Dakhal'' (1976), was their exaggeratedly muscular physique. In this way he made obvious the inner strength of the sturdy, hard working peasants, the backbone of Bangladesh, something that would have remained hidden in a more realistic depiction.<ref name=samaj/><ref name=tipu/><ref name=cabinet/><ref name=textbook/>

Sultan did some of his best work in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1976 the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy put on an individual exhibition of his work. It was his first major exhibition and his first in Dhaka.<ref name="samaj"/><ref name=dictionary/> The next year he was selected as a member of the panel of judges for the Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka.<ref name=cabinet/> The catalog of his solo exhibition at the German Cultural Center, Dhaka, in 1987, described how he saw his subjects:

{{quote|These people who lived close to the soil, who bore on their shoulders the burden of civilization did not appear to Sultan to be weak, debilitated, starving creatures who deserved pity and sympathy. Quite the contrary, he saw their bulging muscles, their vigorous torso, their overpowering vitality, their well-rounded buttocks and swelling breasts ready to come to grip with life.<ref name=german/>
}}

The peasants were heroes to him. He described their place in his art:

{{quote|The matter of my paintings is about the symbol of energy. The muscle is being used for struggling, struggling with the soil. Power of those arms drives the plough into the soil and grows crops. Labor is the basis and because of that labor of our farmers this land has been surviving over thousand of years.<ref name=nree/>
}}

Sultan's paintings never included urban elements or anything produced by modern technology, which he considered imported. They are [[modern art]] in the sense that he broke with the artistic conventions of the past, but they remained [[figurative art]] with a narrative. He had little interest in [[abstract art]].<ref name=samaj/><ref name=dastagir/>
[[File:House of SM Sultan.jpg|thumb|House of SM Sultan]]

==Legacy==
Professor Lala Rukh Selim, Chairman of the Department of Sculpture, University of Dhaka, described Sultan as one of the four pioneers of Bangladeshi modernism, along with [[Zainul Abedin]], [[Safiuddin Ahmed]], and [[Quamrul Hassan]].<ref name=samaj/>

Sultan received the Ekushey Padak, Bangladesh's highest civilian award for contribution in the field of arts, in 1982; the Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award in 1986; and the Independence Day Award, the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh, in 1993 for his contribution to fine arts.<ref name=bdnews/><ref name=foundation/>

''Harvesting'' (1986) is listed by the Bangladesh National Museum as one of its 100 renowned objects.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bangladeshmuseum.gov.bd/site/index.php/100-renowned-objects |title=100 Renowned Objects |website=Bangladesh National Museum |access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref>

Sultan established the Kurigram Fine Arts Institute at Narail in 1969 and another art school, now named Charupeeth, in Jessore in 1973.<ref name=german/><ref name=foundation/>

In 1989, [[Tareque Masud]] directed a 54-minute documentary film on Sultan's life, called ''[[Adam Surat]]'' (The Inner Strength). Masud started filming it in 1982 with the help of the painter, and traveled with him all around Bangladesh. According to Masud, Sultan agreed to cooperate only on the condition that "... rather than being the film's subject, he would act as a catalyst to reveal the film's true protagonist, the Bengali peasant."

In 2005, photographer [[Nasir Ali Mamun]] published a book ''Guru'' with 68 photographs of Sultan. These were selected from thousands of photographs taken by Mamun in the period from 1978, when he first met with Sultan, until his death.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Afsar |date=13 July 2005 |title=The lens on legendary artist SM Sultan |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/07/13/d507131401105.htm |newspaper=The Daily Star |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628140949/http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/07/13/d507131401105.htm |archive-date=28 June 2006|access-date=8 August 2022}}</ref>

===SM Sultan Gold Medal===
[[Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy]] introduced an award 'SM Sultan Gold Medal', named after SM Sultan. The award is given every year to a notable artist, during the festival marking the birth anniversary of SM Sultan.<ref>{{cite news |date=13 July 2005 |script-title=bn:বাংলাদেশ শিল্পকলা একাডেমি’র ‘সুলতান স্বর্ণ পদক 2020’ ভূষিত হলেন অধ্যাপক ড. ফরিদা জামান |url=http://shilpakala.gov.bd/site/news/1948ee9b-f2ef-4fac-bbae-a7f80b328e22/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A6%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B6-%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A1%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BF%E2%80%99%E0%A6%B0-%E2%80%98%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A3-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%95-2020%E2%80%99--%E0%A6%AD%E0%A7%82%E0%A6%B7%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A4-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%95-%E0%A6%A1-%E0%A6%AB%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8 |language=bn |publisher=[[Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy]] |access-date=17 April 2022}}</ref> As of January 2020, the award recipients include [[Farida Zaman]], [[Mustafa Monwar]], [[Qayyum Chowdhury]], [[Rafiqun Nabi]], [[Ferdousi Priyabhashini]], [[Hashem Khan (artist)|Hashem Khan]], [[Abdul Mannan]], [[Kalidas Karmakar]], [[Hamiduzzaman Khan]], [[Samarjit Roy Chowdhury]] and [[Murtaja Baseer]].<ref>{{cite news |date=29 January 2020 |title=Farida Zaman receives Sultan Gold Medal |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/97940/farida-zaman-receives-sultan-gold-medal |newspaper=New Age |access-date=17 April 2022}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
<references>
<ref name=samaj>{{cite journal |last=Selim |first=Lala Rukh |year=2014 |title=Art of Bangladesh: the Changing Role of Tradition, Search for Identity and Globalization |url=http://samaj.revues.org/3725 |journal=South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal [Online] |publisher=Association pour la Recherche sur l’Asie du Sud |issue=9 |pages=10–19 |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804050858/http://samaj.revues.org/3725 |archive-date=4 August 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=bdnews>{{cite news |author= |date=9 August 2005 |title=Birth anniversary of SM Sultan Wednesday |url=http://ns.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=15123&cid=21 |newspaper=bdnews24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317072354/http://ns.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=15123&cid=21 |archive-date=17 March 2012 |access-date=1 September 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=german>{{cite book |title=S.M. Sultan and His Paintings |publisher=German Cultural Institute, Dhaka |date=1987 |pages=11–35}}</ref>

<ref name=Banglapedia>{{cite book |last=Islam |first=Syed Manzoorul |author-link1=Syed Manzoorul Islam |year=2012 |chapter=Sultan, SM |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Sultan,_SM |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref>

<ref name=foundation>{{cite web |url=http://www.bengalfoundation.org/old/index.php?view=artist/ArtistProfile.php&artistID=235&page=5 |title=S. M. Sultan |publisher=Bengal Foundation |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804051133/http://www.bengalfoundation.org/old/index.php?view=artist%2FArtistProfile.php&artistID=235&page=5 |archive-date=4 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

<ref name=tipu>{{cite journal |last1=Tipu |first1=Shakhawat |year=2010 |title=The resistant corpus: Recontextualizing the communal vision of Lal Miah |url=http://www.departmag.com/archive/2nd_issue/the_resistant_corpus.html |journal=Depart, 2nd Issue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106215306/http://www.departmag.com/archive/2nd_issue/the_resistant_corpus.html |archive-date=6 November 2013 |access-date=28 July 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=cabinet>{{cite web |url=http://www.cabinet.gov.bd/view_award.php?lang=bn&award_person_id=25 |title=Independence Award Listing Details |website=Cabinet Division, Government of Bangladesh |language=bn |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823082847/http://www.cabinet.gov.bd/view_award.php?lang=bn&award_person_id=25 |archive-date=23 August 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=dictionary>{{cite book |last1=Chakrabarti |first1=Kunal |last2=Chakrabarti |first2=Shubhra |date=2013 |title=Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVOFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA444 |location= Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=444–445 |isbn=978-0810853348 |access-date=28 July 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=textbook>{{cite web |url=http://www.nctb.gov.bd/TextBook_2013/Eng.ver-2013-PDF/Class-9/Arts%20and%20crft%20final%209-10.pdf |title=Arts & Crafts: Classes 9-10 |last1=Khan |first1=Hahsem |last2=Malakar |first2=Adeline |year=2013 |editor-last=Monowar |editor-first=Mustafa |website=National Curriculum & Textbook Board |pages=23–24 |access-date=28 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706072439/http://www.nctb.gov.bd/TextBook_2013/Eng.ver-2013-PDF/Class-9/Arts%20and%20crft%20final%209-10.pdf |archive-date=6 July 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=dastagir>{{cite journal |last1=Dastagir |first1=Syed Golam |year=2010 |title=Sultan and his spirited peasant population |url=http://www.departmag.com/archive/2nd_issue/sultan_and_his_spirited.html |journal=Depart, 2nd Issue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204100322/http://www.departmag.com/archive/2nd_issue/sultan_and_his_spirited.html |archive-date=4 December 2013 |access-date=28 July 2022}}</ref>

<ref name=nree>{{cite web |url=http://www.gallerynree.com/index.php/artist-in-bangladesh |title=Artist in Bangladesh |website=Gallery Nree |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127090355/http://www.gallerynree.com/index.php/artist-in-bangladesh |archive-date=27 November 2022}}</ref>
</references>

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last1=Hoek |first1=Lotte |last2=Sunderason |first2=Sanjukta |title=Journeying through Modernism: Travels and Transits of East Pakistani Artists in Post-Imperial London |url=http://britishartstudies.ac.uk/issues/issue-index/issue-13/two-east-pakistani-artists-in-post-war-london |journal=British Art Studies |year=2019 |issue=13 |doi=10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-13/hoek-sunderason|doi-access=free }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb name}}

{{Artists of Bangladesh}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sultan, S. M.}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:Bengali male artists]]
[[Category:Bangladeshi painters]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Ekushey Padak]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Independence Day Award]]
[[Category:People from Narail District]]

SM Sultan - Revision history

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