Art is the most human of things. Based in the genetic, in the creative intelligence and the nimble body, art is a potential in every individual. Nurtured in social experience, taught, learned, and bent against circumstance, art is a reality in every culture. Always unifying what analysis divides, art is personal and collective, intellectual and sensual, inventive and conventional, material and spiritual, useful and beautiful, a compromise between will and conditions. Art is, given the storms and pains and limited resources, the best that can be done. Through art, the human complexity comes into the world for consideration. It is here to see. To study art, we need not sneak about like spies or thieves or detectives, wheedling for information or bullying our companions into uncomfortable confessions. We stand with them, letting their work set the agenda for inquiry. We look together at what they have done, using it to discover what they think and intend. Learning to be fascinated by what fascinates them, overcoming our separation in a oneness of interest, we find in art a courteous entry to the life of the creator and the culture of creation. - from the Introduction. This book does for Bangladesh what Henry Glassie has already brilliantly achieved for Ireland and Turkey. "I write", he says, "to introduce you to the people of Bangladesh through their art, and to use their art to exemplify the study of creativity in its own context as part of a general inquiry into human being". "Art and Life in Bangladesh" is at once an introduction to the country and its history and a meditation on the importance of art and life and the relationship between art, meaning, and understanding. And far from incidentally, it recognizes the work of a variety of gifted artists - potters, metal workers, painters, weavers, poets. Glassie introduces us to dozens of artists working in different mediums and shares with us both the thrill of meeting new people and discovering new ways of art as well as his ruminations on their work. Anyone interested in Bangladesh, art, and the ways of the folklorist will be thrilled with this magisterial volume.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
It's unfortunate that most people associate Bangladesh with starvation, natural disasters, and political turmoil, as if this region of the world existed in a perpetual state of emergency. It is true that life in Bangladesh is not easy--there are crop failures, typhoons, and political unrest--but there is also a long and rich tradition of art, ranging from the potter's craft to amazing works of painting, engraving, weaving, sculpture, metalwork, and more. In Art and Life in Bangladesh, Henry Glassie, a professor of folklore at Indiana University, introduces readers to the people of Bangladesh through their artwork. But Glassie's book is not a coffee-table volume filled with gorgeous images and a thin trickle of print; rather, art is simply the medium by which he guides the reader through the history, culture, and community of this small land situated on the world's widest delta.
Glassie is not content merely to survey Bangladeshi art; instead, he introduces readers to individual artists, allowing each of them to speak at length about his or her work and motivation. It soon becomes clear that in Bangladesh, art and everyday life are inextricably linked. Photographs are liberally sprinkled throughout the text--if only some of them were in color. Perhaps with Art and Life in Bangladesh, Glassie, who has performed similar ethnographic marvels in books about Irish and Turkish art, will help promote a more positive image of this ancient land.
From Library Journal
The premier English-language academic folklorist of our time, Glassie (Indiana Univ.) is a world figure, having written magisterially on American, Irish, and Turkish folklore. Now he writes on yet another part of the world. Typically, he constructs a composite portrait of a land, its resources, and, most important to him, its artists. He introduces individual folk artists, universalizing them beyond their particular environment. Though Bangladesh may seem remote to most Americans, Glassie's gift is his ability to demonstrate to the reader how the interplay of traditional aesthetics and creativity is comprehensible to an outsider. His exquisite prose style in combination with hundreds of his own photographs combine to make this book accessible to academic and general audiences. Highly recommended.?David S. Azzolina, Univ. of Pennsylvania Libs., Philadelphia
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Explore the culture and people of Bangladesh through art,
By tmcmahon@fast.net (Tom McMahon, Reading, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Art and Life in Bangladesh (Hardcover)
The author has captured the essence of East Bengal in this marvelous book about art in Bangladesh. While the primary medium is pottery, the book also touches on rickshaw art, engraving, boat building, straw mat production and others. More than a description of art and the artists, it delves into the philosophy of Bengal and reaches depths of religious understanding (especially among the Hindu community); that many of us who lived in Bangladesh did not encounter. If you love Bangladesh, this book is must reading.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Masterful Presentation,
This review is from: Art and Life in Bangladesh (Hardcover)
Henry Glassie has written one of the great books of the 21st Century. His descriptions of the history of Bangladesh provide exactly the context needed to understand the folklife and art that he chooses to present from this nation. Glassie balances his own thought-provoking and insightful interpretations with articulate and intriguing texts, edited together from hundreds of hours of interview material. In this manner, Glassie guides the reader to a great understanding of the incredible artistry of the people of Bangladesh. Reading this book forces one to reflect on a range of important issues -- the central one being a compassionate concern with what it means to be wealthy or poor in Bangladesh, and in America.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not timeless, thank goodness,
By A Customer
This review is from: Art and Life in Bangladesh (Hardcover)
"Art" must be taken very broadly, not to misjudge this book by its title. Glassie is such an honest, humble writer, one would forgive him for staying with the high arts, but he brings us into the back yards of potters and other craftspeople who labor in mud and obscurity. What I appreciate the most is his exquisite sense of the moment. Glassie never generalizes or universalizes; he shows us how lives and art change (not constantly, but imperceptibly, and also in sudden surges), and at the end we know more about all people by knowing more about these few.
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