Art and Life in Bangladesh

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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., PhiladelphiaCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Francis Robinson
This marvelous book is an outstanding introduction to a little-known land.


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The author (folklore and Turkish studies, Indiana U.) spent a decade writing a book on Turkeyan ethnohistory based on study of the country's art; here he uses a similar approach, though he spent less time at it, in an intimate study of Bangladesh. He focuses on interviewing potters, who comment as poets, historians, and philosophers about their work and their connection to it. Expanding on their commentary, Glassie applies it to other media, to weaving and shipbuilding, and to painting, engraving, and brass casting, thus giving a comprehensive view of the culture of Bangladesh and the creative heritage of its people. Included are many b&w and some color photos of the people with whom Glassie engaged as well as the land, cities, and arts and crafts of Bangladesh. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


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