Qayyum Chowdhury

Qayyum Chowdhury (9 March 1932 – 30 November 2014)[1][2] was a Bangladeshi painter. Along with Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan and Safiuddin Ahmed, he is considered as a first generation artist of Bangladesh.[3] He was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 1984 and the Independence Day Award in 2014 by the Government of Bangladesh.

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, 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|Career

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