Page 415 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

412 ART AND CRAFTS

He got involved with different types of applied art from his student life. His interest
and keen attention in cover designing and illustration of books and magazines enabled
him to establish a unique identity. Along with his irregular involvement in book cover
and other designing, he got the opportunity to flourish his creativity by working with
newspapers, advertising firms and film magazines. During this period, fantastic book
covers by Satyajit Ray published by Signet Press and the illustrations by Makhan
Datta Gupta, greatly influenced the works of Qayyum Chowdhury. He confessed, ‘It
seems like a nightmare when I think about the world of books in that period (1950s).
I can hardly remember a book that looked attractive. I was fascinated to see the books
published by Signet Press in Kolkata. They proved how beautiful a book could be. At
that time, Satyajit Ray and Khaled Chowdhury used to create the book covers
published by Signet Press. Satyajit Ray’s cover designs made me realize what a good
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book cover is.’ [Trans.]
He received recognition for his unremitting interest in this field. He twice received
(1959 and 1961) the best prize for designing the cover of the Railway Timetable. He
also received the award of the best cover designer by National Book Centre (Jatiyo
Grontho Kendro) seven times (1964, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1975 and 1976). He
received an award for illustration and book designing in the book fair held in Leipzig
in East Germany (1968). Jatiyo Grantha Kendra awarded him with Gold Medal in
1975. An exhibition of 1,500 book covers by him was also held on this occasion.
Shamsur Rahman’s evaluation of Qayyum Chowdhury as a cover designer is worth
mentioning: ‘In creating the cover designs, he made the use of the creative power of
an artist. He is presenting us wonderfully beautiful cover designs, one after another.
He transformed the once-ugly cover designing art into a beautiful one through his
concentration and toil. Qayyum Chowdhury has contributed substantially in the good
taste that can be observed in our publications. His supremacy as a cover-designer in
Bangladesh is unquestionable.’ 71 [Trans.]
He joined Dhaka Government Art Institute as a teacher in 1957. He got married in
1960 and in the same year, he left the teaching profession and joined Design Centre
as a designer. In 1961, he left Design Centre and joined the ‘Observer’ group of
publications as the chief artist. On 20 October 1965, he again joined Government Art
College of Dhaka (changed name of the Art Institute) as a lecturer in the commercial
art department. He was promoted to the position of assistant professor on 7 February
1970, to associate professor on 16 January 1986 and finally to professor on 13
February 1991. He retired from this organization (subsequently named the Institute
of Fine Art under the University of Dhaka) in 1994. However, he continued teaching
in the Institute until 2002 (first by extension of his service and later as a
supernumerary teacher).
Apart from these regular services, he was involved with different organizations as
editor or art director. For example, he was the joint editor of a film monthly
Chhayachhobi (1958), regular cover designer of Sandhani Publication (established in