Rashid Chowdhury

Rashid Chowdhury (1932–1986) was one of the most internationally connected Bangladeshi artists of his generation — a painter, tapestry artist, and printmaker who studied in Paris and Madrid and played a crucial role in building the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Chittagong.

Born in Faridpur, he studied at the Government Institute of Fine Arts in Dhaka before winning a scholarship to study in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and later in Madrid. In Europe, he became fascinated with tapestry — the ancient medium of woven textile art — and trained under master tapestry weavers.

Returning to Bangladesh, he introduced tapestry as a recognised fine art form, creating large-scale woven works that combined European techniques with Bangladeshi motifs: river landscapes, folk patterns, liberation struggle imagery.

He founded the Department of Fine Arts at Chittagong University and trained a generation of artists. His paintings in oil and watercolour show the same richness of texture and colour as his tapestries.

He received the Ekushey Padak in 1980.