Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology

Art and Life in Bangladesh presents the country, its landscape and history, its artists and their work. Glassie arrays the potter's works - from useful pots to radiant images of the Hindi deities - and brings us into the company of potters who are poets, historians, and philosophers. The book ascends to the splendid spiritual explanation of art provided by the sculptor Haripada Pal. In conversation with the artists who work the clay, Glassie learned their idea of art, and he applies it to other media, to weaving and shipbuilding, to painting, engraving, and brass casting. The book expands into a comprehensive view of creation in Bangladesh, and it forms an elegant meditation on life and work and the importance of art.