S M Samsu

S M Samsu (Born 1958)

It all began when I was a little boy—a school goer; started drawing on walls. Later on, I found Zainul Abedin, an iconic Bengal painter, in my text book, and was spurred immensely seeing his works and reading about him. My math notebooks became filled up with drawings. But what about colouring? As my parents were poor, I made different colours squeezing various vegetable leaves that quite worked for my paintings. My dad, a devout Muslim, didn’t like paintings. Of my going to school and of my coming thence, I came across rickshaw painter Abdul Haqim’s shop, upon the main street. ‘‘Would you teach me how to draw and paint?’’ I implored him one day. He told me to see him with my guardian. I convinced my parents that I didn’t like studying and wouldn’t go to school anymore; I’d learn to paint. It was 1974. Having taken three years work lesson from him, I wanted to be on my own to get into the profession—rickshaw painting. Initially at home, and then rented a place, to do my painting work. Since digital printing kicked off in 1996, I fell into trouble. However, over the later years I got numerous painting orders from foreigners. Alliance de Franchise, with works of 85 (including me) rickshaw painters, in 1999, organized an exhibition. In the same year, my painting was awarded in the Rickshaw-Painting-Competition on the occasion and on the theme ‘‘50^th Anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany’’. 

Email:  smsamsu58@gmail.com
           odvutadhar1@gmail.com

Mobile: +8801911011283

Address: Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh