Editorial
Devdas Chakravarty's passing
His legacy will live on
DEVDAS Chakravarty was symbolic of a generation of artists which aligned itself with the broader cultural and political aspirations of the nation. Chakravarty, in the manner of scores of others in the field in which he always excelled, voiced such aspirations loud and clear through the seminal posters he drew at the height of the War of Liberation in 1971. These greatly inspired the freedom fighters to liberate their country from the yoke of the forces of occupation and darkness.
In Chakravarty's death, Bangladesh loses one more of the cultural pioneers who made a difference, especially in the heady times of the late 1960s and early 1970s. And yet the history of art, indeed of aesthetics, in our part of the world goes back to the 1950s when Chakravarty and the illustrious men he worked with -- Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin and Potua Quamrul Hasan -- inaugurated what would eventually underpin the cultural consciousness of Bengal this side of the political frontier. It was such an acute awareness of political realities which impelled Devdas Chakravarty into getting up and about in the business of bringing artistic dimensions to Dhaka and thenceforth systematically building on them. Over the years, such endeavours would pay rich dividends. One has only to recall the many artists who made their way to Mujibnagar and quickly recognised the power that their creativity could exercise on the armed struggle for freedom.
In the manner of a true artist, Chakravarty aspired to, and lived, a simple and humble life. Acclaimed, both nationally and internationally, he was self-effacing that endeared him to his peers and the people alike. Rather shy in his dealings with others, he shunned publicity. It was in depictions of nature, of the lives that meshed into its fine texture, that he constantly renewed himself. His art was, in turn, a renewal of our collective self.
We mourn his passing. His legacy lives on.
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