Collection: SM Sultan

A leading modernist painter, Sheikh Mohammad Sultan (S M Sultan) enrolled in the art school in Kolkata but left without completing his degree. He traveled widely in undivided India. His time in Kashmir, especially, was to have a lasting influence, as can be seen in the works that he made decades later. After the Partition of India in 1947, he moved further afield – to America, England, and Western Europe. In 1973, he returned to his home in Narail where, with the exception of a few long visits to Dhaka, he lived until his death in 1994.
Sultan is best known for his bold and expansive oil paintings that frame epic narratives of the struggle and resilience of peasants. Engaged in exploring the spirit, rather than the reality of the world that he saw around him, many of Sultan’s surviving works depict idyllic landscapes, placid animals, vigorous men, and languid, voluptuous women. He received the Ekushey Padak (1982) and the Independence Award (1993), among other honors and awards.