A leading Bangladeshi modernist, S.M. Sultan gained recognition for his striking depictions of peasants and laborers engaged in everyday life rendered with exaggerated muscular features and handmade pigments. Sultan said, “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 thousands of years.”
Sultan began his art education at the Government Art School in Calcutta, India, but left before completing his degree. He received the Rockefeller Scholarship, which allowed him to travel to the United States and exhibit his work in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Chicago. His works are held in several major collections in Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh National Museum, the National Art Gallery, and the Bengal Foundation, all in Dhaka.
