Qayyum Chowdhury (9 March 1932 – 30 November 2014) was a Bangladeshi painter. Along with Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan and Safiuddin Ahmed, he is considered as a first generation artist of

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. He was awarded the

Ekushey Padak Ekushey Padak () is the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh, introduced in memory of martyrs of the Bengali language movement of 1952. The award is given to recognize contributions in a number of fields, including culture, education, and e ...

in 1984 and the Independence Day Award in 2014 by the

Government of Bangladesh The government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh () is the central government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Constitution of Bangladesh comprising the executive (the president, prime minister and cabinet), the ...

Early life

Chowdhury was born on 9 March 1932 in Feni. His father, Abdul Quddus Chowdhury, came from a landlord family and was a cooperative-bank official. Because of transferring job, Chowdhury lived in Chittagong, Comilla, Narail,

Sandwip Sandwip (, ) is an island located in the southeastern coast of Bangladesh in the Chittagong District. Along with the island of Urir Char and Bhasan Char, this is part of Sandwip Upazila. Description Sandwip is located in the north-east of the ...

Noakhali Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...

, Feni, Faridpur and Mymensingh in his boyhood. His uncles, Mohtasambillah Chowdhury and Aminul Islam Chowdhury were writers. In 1949, he completed his matriculation from Mymensingh City Collegiate School. He graduated from Dhaka Art College (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka) in 1954.

Career

Chowdhury joined Dhaka Art College as a lecturer in 1957. He then took a job at the newly established Design Centre to work under Quamrul Hassan. Within a year he joined the then Pakistan Observer where he served as the chief artist. He also started working for the Observer group's other publications namely ''Chitrali'', a cine magazine and ''Purbadesh'', a news magazine. He went back to Dhaka Art College in 1965. He was promoted to the position of assistant professor in 1970, to associate professor in 1986 and to professor in 1991. He retired from the organization in 1994 but he kept teaching in the institute until 2002.

Works

Chowdhury's early work include ''"My Sister"'' (oil painting, 1954), ''"Pawnbroker"'' (oil painting, 1956), ''"Boat in Moonlight"'' (watercolor, 1956) and Self-portrait (oil painting, 1959). His later work were ''"Boat"'' (pen and ink, 2001), ''"Setting Sun"'' (pen and ink, 2001), ''"Secret Talk"'' (acrylic, 2004) and ''"Worried"'' (acrylic, 2004). He held four solo exhibitions. Chowdhury began designing book covers by working on Zahir Raihan's book ''"Shesh Bikeler Meye"''. He designed the cover of Shamsur Rahman (poet)'s first poetry collection, ''Prothom Gaan Dwityo Mrittyur Agey'', and several books of

Syed Shamsul Haque Syed Shamsul Haq (27 December 1935 – 27 September 2016) was a Bangladeshi writer. He was awarded Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1966 (the youngest among all to receive it), Ekushey Padak in 1984 and Independence Day Award in 2000 by the Gov ...

. Chowdhury was a member of

Bangladesh Bank Bangladesh Bank (BB; ) is the central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is fully owned by the Bangladesh, Government of Bangladesh. The bank is active in developing green banking. and financial inclusion poli ...

's currency note design committee and mural committee and designed several currency notes in circulation. Chowdhury had been involved with daily Prothom Alo since its inception in 1998. He was the convenor of the ''Charu Karu Shilpi Songram Parishad'' during the liberation war in 1971.

Awards

* First prize for Painting, National Art Exhibition in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

(1961) * The Imperial Court Prize, Tehran Biennale (1966) * Gold medal for book design from the National Book Centre, Dhaka (1975) * Shilpakala Academy Award (1977) *

(1984) * 6th Bangabandhu Award (1994) * Leipzig Book Fair Prize for book illustration (1983) * Sultan Padak (1999)

Personal life and death

In 1960, Chowdhury married Tahera Khanum, (1935–2021) an artist who was one of the first four girls to get admitted to the Art College in 1954. Together they had a son Moinul Islam Zaber. On 30 November 2014, Chowdhury fell sick while delivering his speech on the fourth-day of Bengal Foundation organized classical music festival in Bangladesh Army Stadium. He had been taken to Combined Military Hospital, where he was declared dead.

Documentary on Qayyum Chowdhury

A documentary film on the life and work of Qayyum Chowdhury was directed and scripted by Fahmida Akhter (as "Fahmida Munni") in 2004 entitled "Nishorger Ankiey" (2004, Ode to Nature : Portrait of an Artist), produced by Bengal Foundation. ,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chowdhury, Qayyum 1932 births 2014 deaths People from Feni District Bangladeshi painters University of Dhaka Faculty of Fine Arts alumni Recipients of the Ekushey Padak Recipients of the Independence Award Honorary Fellows of Bangla Academy Burials at Azimpur Graveyard