Zainul Abedin was a Bangladeshi painter born in Kishoregonj, East Bengal, British India. He became well known in 1944 through his series of paintings depicting some of the great famines in Bengal during its British colonial period. After the Partition of Indian subcontinent he moved to East Pakistan. In 1948, he helped to establish the Institute of Arts and Crafts at University of Dhaka. The Indian Express has described him as a legendary Bangladeshi painter. Like many of his contemporaries, his paintings on the Bengal famine of 1943 are viewed as his most characteristic works. His homeland honored him with given the title "Shilpacharya" "Great teacher of the arts" for his artistic and visionary attributes. He was the pioneer of the modern art movement that took place in Bangladesh and was rightly considered by Syed Manzoorul Islam as the founding father of Bangladeshi modern arts, soon after Bangladesh earned the status of an independent republic.
Quamrul Hassan was a Bengali artist. Hassan is referred to in Bangladesh as Potua, a word usually associated with folk artists, due to his down to earth style yet very modern in nature as he always added Cubism other than the folk style to his artworks. In addition to his artistic legacy, two of Hassan's work have come to be part of Bangladesh's political history. The first of this is a monstrous rendition of Yahya Khan, the Pakistani president who ordered genocide in Bangladesh. The second was just before his death, mocking the then dictator of Bangladesh, Hossain Mohammad Ershad. This sketch was titled Desh aaj bisshobeheyar khoppre.
Mymensingh is a major city and the capital of Mymensingh Division, Bangladesh. Located on the bank of Brahmaputra River, about 120 km (75 mi) north from Dhaka, it is a major financial center and educational hub of north-central Bangladesh. The city was constituted on 1 May,1787 by the British East India Company.
Sheikh Mohammed Sultan, popularly known as S M Sultan, was a Bengali decolonial artist who worked in painting and drawing. His fame rests on his striking depictions of exaggeratedly muscular Bangladeshi peasants engaged in the activities of their everyday lives. Sultan's early works were influenced by western technics and forms, particularly impressionism, however, in his later works particularly, works exhibited in 1976, we discover there is a constant temptation to decolonize his art technics and forms.
Rafiqun Nabi, better known as Ranabi, is a Bangladeshi artist and cartoonist. He is best known for creating Tokai, a character symbolizing the poor street boys of Dhaka who lives on picking things from dustbins or begging and having a knack of telling simple yet painful truths about current political and socio-economic situation of the country. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 1993 by the government of Bangladesh.
The Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA) was established in 1948 as the Dhaka Art School. It was the first art school in the region and became the main centre of art and cultural practice. Since 1956 it has been situated in Shahbag, Dhaka, close to the Bangladesh National Museum. Architect Muzharul Islam designed the building. In 2008, the institute took its current name when it became one of the faculties of the University of Dhaka.
The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. The Bengali people are its dominant ethnolinguistic group. The region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian subcontinental empires. Bengal was considered to be the richest part of Islamic medieval India and during the era of the Bengal Sultanate it was described to be a major trading nation in the world, while during Mughal times, having triggered the proto-industrialization, its economy was worth 12% of global GDP. However, significant socio-economic inequalities existed during this period. As a part of the Bengal Presidency, it also hosted the region's most advanced political and cultural centers during British rule. Historically Feudalism has been widespread in the entire eastern Indian region. The feudal system flourished to a large extent under the British administration, which served as a means to exploit the Indian peasants by the British colonizers. This created a class of rich landlords in Bengal and a large population of poor peasants. It is noteworthy that a major portion of the Bengali intellectual community during the British era emerged from this wealthy class of landlords, as primarily they belonged to well educated families and got the economic opportunities to receive English education, often from abroad. The lower social classes remained in abject poverty and illiteracy. Thus, although the contribution of the Bengali intellectual community has been immense towards literature, science, politics and the Indian freedom movement, but still as it flourished under an exploitative imperial government, it mostly constituted of individuals belonging to the wealthy landlord families.
Syed Jahangir was a Bangladeshi painter. He was awarded Ekushey Padak by the Government of Bangladesh in 1985. He served as the department head of the Arts Faculty at Shilpakala Academy in 1977. His notable paintings include Attmar Ujjibon, Ullas, Dhoni, Ojana-Oneshya and Osoni-Sangket.
Safiuddin Ahmed was a Bangladeshi artist. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 1978 and Independence Day Award in 1996 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Abdus Shakoor is a Bangladeshi painter and calligrapher.
ICE Today is a Bangladeshi lifestyle magazine focusing on contemporary culture and society in the country. The magazine has sections dedicated to business, fashion, health, women, music, travel and cuisine.
Mustafa Monwar is a Bangladeshi artist. He is a painter, sculptor, radio performer and professor of fine arts. He is currently the chairman of Bangladesh Shishu Academy. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2004 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Mohammad Kibria was a Bangladeshi artist. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 1983 and Independence Day Award in 1999 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Qayyum Chowdhury was a Bangladeshi painter. Along with Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan and Safiuddin Ahmed, he is considered as a first generation artist of Bangladesh. He was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 1984 and the Independence Day Award in 2014 by the Government of Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi art is a form of visual arts that has been practiced throughout the land of what is now known as Bangladesh. Bangladeshi art has a perennial history which originated more than two thousand years ago and is practiced even to this date. Among the various forms of Bangladeshi art, photography, architecture, sculpture and painting are the most notable.
Kanak Chanpa Chakma is a Bangladeshi Chakma artist who has won national and international awards, and is renowned for her paintings depicting the lives of Bangladeshi ethnic minorities, focusing on the lives of women, and their daily lives combining semi realistic and abstract in the same frame.
Hamiduzzaman Khan is a Bangladeshi artist and sculptor. He is well known as a sculptor for his theme and form oriented sculptures, in particular sculptures on the theme of Bangladesh War of Liberation and birds. Following the introduction of modernity in sculpture in Bangladesh in the 1950s by Novera Ahmed, Khan was instrumental in the popularization of sculpture in the country through his distinctive form of modernity. Influenced by Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, his works manifest expressionism, minimalism, and a constant exploration of purity of material. He worked on both figurative as well as abstract genres.
Samarjit Roy Chowdhury is a Bangladeshi painter. He was awarded Ekushey Padak in 2014 by the Government of Bangladesh.
The Bengal Foundation is a Bangladeshi non-profit and charitable organization headquartered in Dhanmondi, Dhaka. It is mostly known for organizing local and international events in the country.
Abdur Razzaque (1932–2005) was a Bangladeshi artist. He is known as one of the significant artists of newly founded East Pakistan in the 1950s and studied at the Art College along with other pioneers from that time including Murtaja Baseer, Rashid Chowdhury, Qayyum Chowdhury, Humayun Kabir, Zunabul Islam, Ekramul Huq, Emdad Hossain and others. His art style is considered to be very versatile due to his usage and practice using three different mediums: sculpting, painting, and printmaking.
