Artist Bijon Chowdhury no more

Noted Indian artist Bijon Chowdhury passed away on March 16 at Belle Vue Clinic of South Kolkata. He had been suffering from severe lung disease for a long time. He was 82. Chowdhury is survived by two daughters and two sons.
Chowdhury was born in Faridpur in 1931. He studied at the Government College of Arts, Kolkata. Later, he graduated from the Dacca Art College (now the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka). In the 1950s, he was deeply involved with left leaning politics along with some of his peers--Qayyum Chowdhury, Devdas Chakraborty and Murtaja Baseer.
Chowdhury was also involved in the Language Movement. In 1953, a collection of poems, short stories, songs and essays on the Language Movement-- edited by Hasan Hafizur Rahman -- was published. The volume, titled “21st February”, also contained a number of illustrations by Chowdhury. These were among the first such published works on the Language Movement. Later he migrated to Kolkata but he was closely associated with Bangladeshi artists. He participated in many workshops and art camps in Dhaka.
A politically aware painter, his paintings depict varied narrative elements. His strong mastery over line never deteriorated into illustration. Most of his paintings are considered to be surrealistic and symbolic.
Chowdhury's artworks were exhibited extensively in India, Bangladesh, Munich, Stockholm and other European countries. He won many awards, which included the award from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1963 and the Rabindra Bharati Award in 1978.