Sheikh Mohammed Sultan (Bangla: এস এম সুলতান) (1923-1994), more well known as SM Sultan, was a painter from Bangladesh. Sultan was born on 10 August 1923 in Masimdia, Narail district, East Bengal (now Bangladesh). This article is about the Bengali language. ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... {{year nav|1939 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Narail is a district in South-western Bangladesh. ... East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly included the modern state of Bangladesh. ...

Biography

Sultan in 1984
From http://www.mikewoodcock.com

After only five years of schooling in Victoria Collegiate School in Narail, Sultan joined his father to work as a mason. He began to draw the buildings his father used to work on and developed an artistic disposition. He wanted to go to Kolkata to study art, but his family did not have the means to send him there. Eventually, Sultan went to Kolkata in 1938 with monetary support from the local zamindar (landlord). Image File history File links Taken by Mike Woodcock File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ...   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ...   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Zamindar, also known as Zemindar, Zamindari, or the Zamindari System (Persian: زمیندار) were employed by the Mughals to collect taxes from peasants. ...

Having inadequate qualifications for admission into the Art School in Kolkata, Sultan only managed to get in through the help of Shahid Suhrawardy, a member of the governing body of the School. Sultan also stayed at Suhrawardy's house and was allowed use of his library. Sultan, however, never completed his education. After three years in the school, his bohemian nature had the better of him and off he went travelling around India and working as a freelance artist. During his travel, he made a living by drawing the portraits of allied soldiers who had camped at the place he was visiting. During this period, his first exhibition was held in Simla, though none of these works have survived, mainly due to Sultan's own indifference towards preserving his work. After living and working in Kashmir for a while, Sultan returned to Narail in the wake of the Partition of India, Narail now part of Bangladesh. A confirmed bachelor, Sultan settled down in an abandoned building in Narail overlooking the river Chitra, where he lived ever since with an adopted family and pets of his own including dogs, mongoose and monkeys. Sultan would later build a mini-zoo near his home. Apart from occasional visits to Dhaka, the capital, Sultan only once left Narail for any substantial period of time. He became interested in a ruined house in Sonargaon, pretty much like his own home in Narail, and lived there for a period.   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ... Shimla Shimla (शिमला) is the capital of Himachal Pradesh and a hill station in North India. ... Kashmir (or Cashmere) may refer to: Kashmir region, the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent India, Kashmir conflict, the territorial dispute between India, Pakistan, and the China over the Kashmir region. ... Narail is a district in South-western Bangladesh. ... Britains holdings on the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, becoming four new independent states: India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh). ... Dhaka (previously Dacca; Bangla: ঢাকা Đhaka; IPA: ) is the capital of Bangladesh and the Dhaka District. ... Sonargaon is the ancient capital of Isa Khans kingdom in Bengal. ...

Sultan's first exhibition in Dhaka was in 1976, inordinately late for a painter of his stature. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...

Sultan died in 1994. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ...

you have listed my image of Sultan as 1984 when it is actually 1994

Accolades

SM Sultan won the "Ekushey Padak" in 1982, Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad award in 1986 and the "Independence Award" in 1993. In 1989, Tareque Masud directed a 54 minute documentary film on SM 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 with Sultan. 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". Bangladesh government recently completed the construction of Sultan memorial complex though it hasn't yet been inaugurated. Sultan, ofcourse had a special relation with Narail. He was known to the locals as "Lal Mia", a most informal and homely name only to be given to a close person. Chetona Theatre from Norail has staged Aango Lal Mia (Our Lal Mia) on Sultan. In 2005, famous Bangladeshi photographer Nasir Ali Mamun published a book named 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 Sultan until his death. Ekushey Padak (Bengali: ) is one of the highest civilian awards in Bangladesh. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tareq Masud (Bangla: তারেক মাসুদ) is a Bangladeshi film director. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

External links

• Banglapedia article on SM Sultan
• Portraits by Nasir Ali Mamun