Rashid Chowdhuy (1932-1986)
Who sow the seeds of Art in Chittagong
Ziauddin Chowdhury
The name, which should be mentioned next to Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin in his regard, is that of Rashid Chowdhury. The nation would definitely remember with gratitude his significant contributions in the development of art movements and institutions of art education in this county. He played a pioneer role in the development of art education and practice in Chittagong. Not only he established the department of fine art in university of Chittagong but also Charukala College (Govt. Art College) in Chittagong. He was a Dynamic, Innovative and versatile scholar.
Through joining as a teacher of fine arts in University of Chittagong he shifted to Chittagong in 1969. Initially fine art education in Chittagong University was a subsidiary subject of the Department of Banga. Rasid Chowdhury established it’s a fully individual department and he was the first head of the department. During stay in Chittagong he also established “Kalabhavan” an art gallery and center of activity in 1972, and the Chittagong Art Collage, a nongovernmental institute of art education in 1973.
One would be able to notice that Rashid Chowdhury, in various levels and scales, has endeavored to achieve a career and artistic intention different from his contemporaries. It might remain arguable that how far he has succeeded in that strenuous effort or has it at all borne any fruit, but by studying that intention one might be able to gain a distinctive overview of his life sketch and artistic strives. His shifting to the Chittagong city and joining the newly – formed department of fine arts in the Chittagong University was a significant event. Unfortunately he had to leave from the position of teacher in the oriental arts Department of the Institute of Arts and Crafts in Dhaka in 1965, which turns great fortune for us. He has a special attraction to chittagong before. He did 3 exhibitions in chittagong 1955, 1970, 1973 even before shifting Chittagong. He left from chittagong in 1981. 1969-1981 almost 20 years he lived in chittagong. Mighty Padma of Faridpur given him a speed while Chittagong given him an emotion. He had a great-cherished dream in Chittagong. Fine arts Dept. as the first institution of offering courses in fine arts at a university level in the country had ample scope for experimentation. A group of graduates from Dhaka joined as students at post-graduate level and in fact it was under his leadership that a fresh and diverse kind of art trend was initiated by these youths in the newly independent Bangladesh. He had to take one of the greatest risks of his life in this move. Chittagong had nothing of the art atmosphere or any infrastructure for art activities. There was neither any art gellary nor any art connoisseur or buyer as such. Not even any artist with institutional training lived in Chittagong. As a result, people in that city had even no idea of art education of any sort. That Rashid Chowdhury was able to establish more than one art related institute in such a barren condition is enough proof of his extraordinary organizing talent.
We could recollect his other endeavors, some of which were-introduction of more liberal and creative freedom to the students while teaching in the fine arts department of the Chittagong University, an effort to initiate teaching in the fashion of Germany’s “Bauhaus” at the same institution so that art education could become more akin to people’s daily life and Job-oriented, his plan to establish a full-fledged and modern institute of art education in the city by uniting fune arts department of the CU and Chittagong Art College, his dreams to found an artist’s village and an artisan’s village in the hill-slopes of Chittagong and so on. Rashid Chowdhury introduced ample freedom and allowed past-graduate students at Chittagong University to go beyond their academic limits and explore their own artistic objectives through trials and errors, which was unconventional in art education in Bangladesh at that time. Special emphasis was given on art theory, which was also generally thought to be not of much importance. He had his own kind of teaching method, which was not limited to classroom activities only but overlapped into a continuous interaction between the teacher and the student. His residence was a buzzing place of whole-time activity and debate and discussions where teachers and students were welcome at any hour of the day. There was a burst of artistic activity with figurative and other diverse style in post-liberation Bangladesh against the prevailing one-dimensional abstraction, and this was predominantly led by the new-generation artists of Chittagong. There is no doubt that freedom of the country played an inspiring role in it, but the role of Rashid Chowdhury in paving the foundation of it could never be underestimated. In fact, Rashid Chowdhury’s life long dream was to establish a “Bauhaus”-like self-cintained institution in Chittagong by unifying the Dep. Of fine arts in CU and the Chittagong Charukala College which would not only produce painters, sculptors, but would also supply product designers, photographers, advertisement designers, interior decorators, fashion designer etc. to the industries and product houses. Another ambition was to establish a craftsmen’s village in which the artisans would have permanent working facilities where they could work round the year and sale through the sales center. Similarly he planned an artists’ village at the slopes of the hills of Chittagong where the artists would live, work and be able to sale as well.
“Tapisree Palli”, a village for a tapestry industry, was yet another dream he wanted ardently to materialize and for which he actually formulated phase-wise layouts and costing estimates with detailed breakups.
Rashid Chowdhury has an inclination to risk uncertainties were rare among his contemporaries. He was a person who has encountered turbulent times, financial constraints and professional uncertainty at different periods of his perturbed life. In many obstacles he had tried to go his aim and he went near succeed of his cherished dream. He thought different and walked on his distinctive path.
Obviously, the artistic identity of Rashid Chowdhury stands supreme. He is not only of this country, but also of this subcontinent he has been the pioneer and greatest tapestry artist till today.
Although Rashid Chowdhury was not such good student in his school life but at Govt. Art Institute in Dhaka he obtained good academic result in 1954 through studying very hard and sincerely. Consequently, a new vista has opened in front of Rashid Chowdhury. He had gone abroad for higher studies and between 1956 and 1964 studied art appreciation at the Ashutosh Museum in Kolkata, India, Sculpture in Madrid, and Fresco, Sculpture and Tapestry in Paris.
Rashid Chowdhury accomplished knowledge of the indigenous origin and technical details of Tapestry at Academie de Juliette in Paris. His teacher was Jean Lursate, who is considered the father of modern tapestry. After returning from France in 1964 he had fully engaged in producing tapestry at his own factory and joined as a part time teacher in the University of Engineering.
Finally he did not go to traverse the conventional path of oil painting. Although he known that tapestry is an expensive medium. He take-up tapestry as the principal medium of his expression, and by that choice he not only deviates from the prevailing trends but also consciously undertakes the responsibility of bearing the burden of connecting contemporary art with the great tradition of weaving in Bangal.
The decision of choosing the traditional art of weaving as his medium of expression, the application of local item like jute, silk, and wool as its raw materials, the dream of establishing an institution of art with applied characteristics, plans of establishing tapestry and artisan’s village and esthetic use of indigenous materials.
Apart from tapestry he has worked in various other mediums as well and tried to maintain his personal stamp in all of them. He was primarily a painter and tapestry artist, but also has worked in terracotta; various paint mediums and has done murals in fresco. He had produced painting in oil, tempera, gouache and watercolor. He had also done some sculpture in terracotta and graphic prints in different medium. Moreover, he composed some poems as well. Rashid Chowdhuy,
He was experimenting in oil, watercolor, gouache and tempera. The rural life is depicted here with its whole gamut of nature, birds and animals and the surroundings. He has taken his fundamental form of his design from the traditional form of the icons of Bangal, particularly the idol of the goddesses. In one side, Icons and statues of hindu god and goddesses, Dhol-playing, Lathikhela, Muharram procession, Jatra, Palagan-punthipath-kathakata-panchali, on the other side, Patachitra, Laskhsmir Shara, Alpana, Embroidered quilt, Shakher hari, clay dolls and toy all of these are engrossed his imagination.
His preferences seem more toward the tension created by diagonal lines rather than the stability of horizontal and vertical lines. Dots, clubs, and strokes help create a relationship between all the elements. Thus, the viewer is attracted toward a feeling of stability and tenseness at the same time. The brightness of color and glow of light should be termed their soul. Emotion and dream, was the foremost passion in his art, of his life as well. He creates an intrinsic appeal, in mast of the cases, by building a conflict between forms of bright primary color in the fore ground against a dark and opaque background color. The inspiration of using unmixed primary colors must have come to him from the folk tradition of Bangali painting like Patachitra and Lakshmir Shara. He did some Sharas at one phase of his life. Strong outline of the forms and radiant colors create a significant feeling on the mind of the viewer, which is even more intensified with the intelligent arrangement of space and glowing light in his works.
His spatial design achieves a kind of a musical symphonic unity by the perfect balance between the background and the forms and a rhythm of dancing lights. Emotion, no doubt, was the governing force behind his creativity. His natural inclination is towards emotion, romanticism and dreaminess. Perhaps the moving vitality of the brightly colored forms bursting against a dreadful background of darkness be the symbolic expression of the artist’s agony and protest against the brutal anarchy in the society. He had suffered many serious diseases. He passed away in Dhaka on 12 Dec. 1986. in his brief life, has had thirteen solo exhibitions in home and abroad. He has taken part in more or less twenty-five group exhibitions in his career. In addition, he has done quite a number of commission works at home and abroad at important establishments. Many institutions and establishments of home and abroad have collected his valuable artwork of different medium. In his short life of 54 years his achievements were not at all insignificant. He won the best award in fresco in a nationwide competition in France when he was still a student. Later, he won the best award at R.C.D. exhibition in Tehran, Iran. He also achived Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Award and “ Ekushey Padak “ at home.
Through joining as a teacher of fine arts in University of Chittagong he shifted to Chittagong in 1969. Initially fine art education in Chittagong University was a subsidiary subject of the Department of Banga. Rasid Chowdhury established it’s a fully individual department and he was the first head of the department. During stay in Chittagong he also established “Kalabhavan” an art gallery and center of activity in 1972, and the Chittagong Art Collage, a nongovernmental institute of art education in 1973.
One would be able to notice that Rashid Chowdhury, in various levels and scales, has endeavored to achieve a career and artistic intention different from his contemporaries. It might remain arguable that how far he has succeeded in that strenuous effort or has it at all borne any fruit, but by studying that intention one might be able to gain a distinctive overview of his life sketch and artistic strives. His shifting to the Chittagong city and joining the newly – formed department of fine arts in the Chittagong University was a significant event. Unfortunately he had to leave from the position of teacher in the oriental arts Department of the Institute of Arts and Crafts in Dhaka in 1965, which turns great fortune for us. He has a special attraction to chittagong before. He did 3 exhibitions in chittagong 1955, 1970, 1973 even before shifting Chittagong. He left from chittagong in 1981. 1969-1981 almost 20 years he lived in chittagong. Mighty Padma of Faridpur given him a speed while Chittagong given him an emotion. He had a great-cherished dream in Chittagong. Fine arts Dept. as the first institution of offering courses in fine arts at a university level in the country had ample scope for experimentation. A group of graduates from Dhaka joined as students at post-graduate level and in fact it was under his leadership that a fresh and diverse kind of art trend was initiated by these youths in the newly independent Bangladesh. He had to take one of the greatest risks of his life in this move. Chittagong had nothing of the art atmosphere or any infrastructure for art activities. There was neither any art gellary nor any art connoisseur or buyer as such. Not even any artist with institutional training lived in Chittagong. As a result, people in that city had even no idea of art education of any sort. That Rashid Chowdhury was able to establish more than one art related institute in such a barren condition is enough proof of his extraordinary organizing talent.
We could recollect his other endeavors, some of which were-introduction of more liberal and creative freedom to the students while teaching in the fine arts department of the Chittagong University, an effort to initiate teaching in the fashion of Germany’s “Bauhaus” at the same institution so that art education could become more akin to people’s daily life and Job-oriented, his plan to establish a full-fledged and modern institute of art education in the city by uniting fune arts department of the CU and Chittagong Art College, his dreams to found an artist’s village and an artisan’s village in the hill-slopes of Chittagong and so on. Rashid Chowdhury introduced ample freedom and allowed past-graduate students at Chittagong University to go beyond their academic limits and explore their own artistic objectives through trials and errors, which was unconventional in art education in Bangladesh at that time. Special emphasis was given on art theory, which was also generally thought to be not of much importance. He had his own kind of teaching method, which was not limited to classroom activities only but overlapped into a continuous interaction between the teacher and the student. His residence was a buzzing place of whole-time activity and debate and discussions where teachers and students were welcome at any hour of the day. There was a burst of artistic activity with figurative and other diverse style in post-liberation Bangladesh against the prevailing one-dimensional abstraction, and this was predominantly led by the new-generation artists of Chittagong. There is no doubt that freedom of the country played an inspiring role in it, but the role of Rashid Chowdhury in paving the foundation of it could never be underestimated. In fact, Rashid Chowdhury’s life long dream was to establish a “Bauhaus”-like self-cintained institution in Chittagong by unifying the Dep. Of fine arts in CU and the Chittagong Charukala College which would not only produce painters, sculptors, but would also supply product designers, photographers, advertisement designers, interior decorators, fashion designer etc. to the industries and product houses. Another ambition was to establish a craftsmen’s village in which the artisans would have permanent working facilities where they could work round the year and sale through the sales center. Similarly he planned an artists’ village at the slopes of the hills of Chittagong where the artists would live, work and be able to sale as well.
“Tapisree Palli”, a village for a tapestry industry, was yet another dream he wanted ardently to materialize and for which he actually formulated phase-wise layouts and costing estimates with detailed breakups.
Rashid Chowdhury has an inclination to risk uncertainties were rare among his contemporaries. He was a person who has encountered turbulent times, financial constraints and professional uncertainty at different periods of his perturbed life. In many obstacles he had tried to go his aim and he went near succeed of his cherished dream. He thought different and walked on his distinctive path.
Obviously, the artistic identity of Rashid Chowdhury stands supreme. He is not only of this country, but also of this subcontinent he has been the pioneer and greatest tapestry artist till today.
Although Rashid Chowdhury was not such good student in his school life but at Govt. Art Institute in Dhaka he obtained good academic result in 1954 through studying very hard and sincerely. Consequently, a new vista has opened in front of Rashid Chowdhury. He had gone abroad for higher studies and between 1956 and 1964 studied art appreciation at the Ashutosh Museum in Kolkata, India, Sculpture in Madrid, and Fresco, Sculpture and Tapestry in Paris.
Rashid Chowdhury accomplished knowledge of the indigenous origin and technical details of Tapestry at Academie de Juliette in Paris. His teacher was Jean Lursate, who is considered the father of modern tapestry. After returning from France in 1964 he had fully engaged in producing tapestry at his own factory and joined as a part time teacher in the University of Engineering.
Finally he did not go to traverse the conventional path of oil painting. Although he known that tapestry is an expensive medium. He take-up tapestry as the principal medium of his expression, and by that choice he not only deviates from the prevailing trends but also consciously undertakes the responsibility of bearing the burden of connecting contemporary art with the great tradition of weaving in Bangal.
The decision of choosing the traditional art of weaving as his medium of expression, the application of local item like jute, silk, and wool as its raw materials, the dream of establishing an institution of art with applied characteristics, plans of establishing tapestry and artisan’s village and esthetic use of indigenous materials.
Apart from tapestry he has worked in various other mediums as well and tried to maintain his personal stamp in all of them. He was primarily a painter and tapestry artist, but also has worked in terracotta; various paint mediums and has done murals in fresco. He had produced painting in oil, tempera, gouache and watercolor. He had also done some sculpture in terracotta and graphic prints in different medium. Moreover, he composed some poems as well. Rashid Chowdhuy,
He was experimenting in oil, watercolor, gouache and tempera. The rural life is depicted here with its whole gamut of nature, birds and animals and the surroundings. He has taken his fundamental form of his design from the traditional form of the icons of Bangal, particularly the idol of the goddesses. In one side, Icons and statues of hindu god and goddesses, Dhol-playing, Lathikhela, Muharram procession, Jatra, Palagan-punthipath-kathakata-panchali, on the other side, Patachitra, Laskhsmir Shara, Alpana, Embroidered quilt, Shakher hari, clay dolls and toy all of these are engrossed his imagination.
His preferences seem more toward the tension created by diagonal lines rather than the stability of horizontal and vertical lines. Dots, clubs, and strokes help create a relationship between all the elements. Thus, the viewer is attracted toward a feeling of stability and tenseness at the same time. The brightness of color and glow of light should be termed their soul. Emotion and dream, was the foremost passion in his art, of his life as well. He creates an intrinsic appeal, in mast of the cases, by building a conflict between forms of bright primary color in the fore ground against a dark and opaque background color. The inspiration of using unmixed primary colors must have come to him from the folk tradition of Bangali painting like Patachitra and Lakshmir Shara. He did some Sharas at one phase of his life. Strong outline of the forms and radiant colors create a significant feeling on the mind of the viewer, which is even more intensified with the intelligent arrangement of space and glowing light in his works.
His spatial design achieves a kind of a musical symphonic unity by the perfect balance between the background and the forms and a rhythm of dancing lights. Emotion, no doubt, was the governing force behind his creativity. His natural inclination is towards emotion, romanticism and dreaminess. Perhaps the moving vitality of the brightly colored forms bursting against a dreadful background of darkness be the symbolic expression of the artist’s agony and protest against the brutal anarchy in the society. He had suffered many serious diseases. He passed away in Dhaka on 12 Dec. 1986. in his brief life, has had thirteen solo exhibitions in home and abroad. He has taken part in more or less twenty-five group exhibitions in his career. In addition, he has done quite a number of commission works at home and abroad at important establishments. Many institutions and establishments of home and abroad have collected his valuable artwork of different medium. In his short life of 54 years his achievements were not at all insignificant. He won the best award in fresco in a nationwide competition in France when he was still a student. Later, he won the best award at R.C.D. exhibition in Tehran, Iran. He also achived Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Award and “ Ekushey Padak “ at home.