Hashem Khan felicitated after Independence Day Award win
Quayyum Chowdhury (left) greets Hashem Khan at the programme. Parveen Khan (wife of Hashem Khan) and Subir Chowdhury are also seen in the photo.
Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts held a reception on April 3 at the gallery in Dhanmondi, Dhaka to honour veteran painter Hashem Khan on being conferred the Shadinota Padak (Independence Day Award 2011). The award was conferred on March 24 at Osmani Memorial Hall.
Khan is famed for his Liberation War-themed works and depiction of the serene landscape of Bengal. His figures and colours are bold and dynamic. His canvases are vast and the use of space in his artworks is outstanding. His paintings usually highlight rural panorama, rustic people and their way of life. Khan makes a great attempt to connect the contemporary themes with the Liberation War.
Acclaimed educationist Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir; fellow artists Quayyum Chowdhury, Rafiqun Nabi, Monirul Islam, Shahid Kabir, Ranjit Das, Mohammad Iqbal; Indian art critic Pranab Ranjan Roy; Shamsuzzaman Khan, director general of Bangla Academy; Subir Chowdhury, director of Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts and publisher Mofidul Haque, among others, spoke on the occasion at the Bengal Café.
The speakers cited the artist's immense contribution to Bangladeshi art and culture. Khan actively participated in the Liberation War as a freedom fighter. He was wounded in the war. From the beginning of his career, he has been actively involved with various social and cultural movements in the country. After independence, the artist expressed his experiences through his art.
Khan was born and raised in Chandpur. The artist completed BFA in 1961 from Government Institute of Arts, Dhaka (presently Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). He was a research scholar in Ceramics, Government Institute of Arts, Dhaka from 1961 to 1963. He trained in cover design and illustration from ACCU, Tokyo in 1979. He taught at the Government Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka for 44 years and retired as Professor in 2007.