Page 414 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

SECOND GENERATION ARTISTS 411

That is how he decided to study in art school when he was in ninth or tenth grade.
Later, after passing Matriculation (1949) from Mymensingh City Collegiate School,
when he took the initiative to study in Dhaka Art Institute, he found a supportive
attitude in his music-loving father.
Qayyum Chowdhury was a student of the second batch of the Dhaka Government Art
Institute (established in 1948). His teachers Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan,
Safiuddin Ahmed and others had a huge influence on him. Besides, his association
with a group of talented classmates went a long way in flourishing the artist in him.
Rashid Choudhury and Abdur Razzaque were prominent among them. He was also a
close friend of Aminul Islam, a first batch student. At this time, his intimacy also grew
with poets, authors and musicians. Among them, Shamsur Rahman, Syed Shamsul
Haque, Hasan Hafizur Rahman, Zahir Raihan, Syed Atikullah, Borhanuddin Khan
Jahangir, Alauddin Al Azad, Samar Das are worth mentioning. After coming to Dhaka,
passion for movies was added to his passion for books and music. The combined
chemistry of all these factors made his study period in the Art institute (1949-54) into
a significant preparatory stage of his becoming an artist.
Though his first solo Exhibition took place 23 years after finishing his studies from
the Institute (1977), he always participated in all major group and national exhibitions.
He participated in all the ‘All Pakistan Art Exhibitions’ (beginning in 1954), in each
‘National Art Exhibition’ (beginning in 1975) in Bangladesh and in all the Asian
Biennales (beginning in 1981) held in Dhaka. Major foreign exhibitions where he
participated are: Exhibition of Nine Artists of East Pakistan in Washington (1957), 5th
Teheran Biennale (1966), Art Exhibition of the 3rd International Trade Fair in Delhi
(1972), third and fourth Triennales in Delhi (1975 and 1978), Graphic Print Exhibition
in East Germany (1977), Sao Paolo International Biennale (1979), first Asian Graphic
Designing Exhibition in Teheran (1979), Contemporary Asian Painting Festival in
Fukuoka (1983), Graphic Design Biennale in Brono, Czechoslovakia (1982), Paris
International Poster Exhibition (1988), Contemporary Art Exhibition of Bangladesh
held in India, Japan, Beijing, Harare and Moscow (1973, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1994
respectively) etc. His second solo exhibition was held just after his first exhibition in
1977 in Washington. His third solo exhibition took place 22 years after that, in
Dhaka’s Shilpangan (1999), and the fourth one was in Bengal Art Gallery (2004). He
created a mosaic mural (900 x 510 cm), based on the Liberation War, in the
Bangladesh Bank building in Rajshahi in the year 1988.
Within a few years after passing from the Art Institute, he received the national award
for his contribution to art (1961-62). In the same year, he received the first prize in the
All Pakistan Art Exhibition held in Lahore for his painting titled Bottom. Four years
later, he received the award of the Royal Court in Teheran Biennale (1966).
Shilpakala Academy Award (1977), Ekushey Award (1986) and many other awards
were added to the list.