Bengal Gallery of Fine Arts will organise a solo art exhibition, titled “Tribute to Bijan Choudhury” -- featuring the works of a distinguished member of the contemporary art movement as well as a one of the students of the first batch of Dacca Art College, artist Bijan Choudhury. The artist died on March 16 this year. The exhibition will begin today at Bengal Gallery in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, and will continue till May 31.

Professor Anisuzzaman will inaugurate the exhibition as chief guest. Artists Qayyum Chowdhury and Debabrata Chakrabarty (of Kolkata) will speak on the occasion.

Bijan Choudhury 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. Later he migrated to Kolkata but maintained close relationship with Bangladeshi artists. He participated in many workshops and art camps in Dhaka.

A politically aware painter, his works are visual narratives. His strong mastery over lines never deteriorated into illustration. Most of his paintings are considered to be surrealistic and symbolic.

Choudhury's artworks were exhibited extensively in India, Bangladesh, Germany, Sweden and other countries. He won many awards, which included the award from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1963 and the Rabindra Bharati Award in 1978.