Qayyum Chowdhury

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, Noakhali, Feni, Faridpur and Mymensingh in his boyhood.[6] His uncles, Mohtasambillah Chowdhury and Aminul Islam Chowdhury were writers.[7] In 1949, he completed his matriculation from Mymensingh City Collegiate School.[6] He graduated from Dhaka Art College (now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka) in 1954.[2]

Chowdhury in 2011

Chowdhury joined Dhaka Art College as a lecturer in 1957.[2] 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.[7] He went back to Dhaka Art College in 1965.[2] He was promoted to the position of assistant professor in 1970, to associate professor in 1986 and to professor in 1991.[6] He retired from the organization in 1994 but he kept teaching in the institute until 2002.[6]

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).[6] His later work were "Boat" (pen and ink, 2001), "Setting Sun" (pen and ink, 2001), "Secret Talk" (acrylic, 2004) and "Worried" (acrylic, 2004).[8] He held four solo exhibitions.[9][10]

Chowdhury began designing book covers by working on Zahir Raihan's book "Shesh Bikeler Meye".[2] He designed the cover of Shamsur Rahman (poet)'s first poetry collection, Prothom Gaan Dwityo Mrittyur Agey, and several books of Syed Shamsul Haque.[2]

Chowdhury was a member of Bangladesh Bank's currency note design committee and mural committee and designed several currency notes in circulation.[2]

Chowdhury had been involved with daily Prothom Alo since its inception in 1998.[2] He was the convenor of the Charu Karu Shilpi Songram Parishad during the liberation war in 1971.[11]

• First prize for Painting, National Art Exhibition in Lahore (1961)[12]
• The Imperial Court Prize, Tehran Biennale (1966)[12]
• Gold medal for book design from the National Book Centre, Dhaka (1975)[12]
• Shilpakala Academy Award (1977)[12]
• Ekushey Padak (1984)[4]
• 6th Bangabandhu Award (1994)[12]
• Leipzig Book Fair Prize for book illustration (1983)[12]
• Sultan Padak (1999)[12]

Chowdhury with his wife

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.[7] Together they had a son Moinul Islam Zaber.[13]

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.[2][14]

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. [15],[16]