Print in actual sense, means the execute icon of picture and scripts with wood or metal block print, originally means, the reflected image of scripts and image which originated almost eleven hundred years ago in Bengal. The study of printmaking in Bengal has been following the Western style for a long time. After partition in 1947, Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin left the job of Calcutta Art School and moved to Dhaka, the capital of East Bengal and one of the provinces of the Muslim majority state. Since then, he took the responsibility of starting the fine arts movement in this country. In 1948, the artists were faced with many obstacles in the establishment of the Fine Arts Institute in East Pakistan's capital Dhaka (University of Dhaka, n.d.; Fairooz et al., 2024). 

Socially, there was no acceptance of fine arts. Nobody could think of someone living to draw in the picture. After a lot of effort, finally, an institution for fine arts, then was established in Dhaka city. In 1948 Shilpacharya inaugurated the institutional practice of art in Bangladesh by establishing 'Government Institute of Art' in Dhaka. Artist Anwarul Haque, artist Shafiuddin Ahmed, Patua Quamrul Hasan, Khwaja Shafiq Ahmed, Shafiqul Amin and artist Mohammed Kibria struggled equally with him (University of Dhaka, n.d.).  The prints of our country were led by Shilpoguru Safiuddin Ahmed. At first started with wood-cut and wood engraving, but in the course of time, the practice of Etching, Aquatint, Linocut, Dry point, Lithography were also expanded. In 1963 the institute turned into Government Degree College and was named East Pakistan College of Arts and Crafts. Through the initial two decades that is from 1950-1970, most of the Painters, Sculptors and even Applied Artist of the Institution of Fine Arts such as Abdur Razzak, Hamidur Rahman, Murtaza Basair, Monirul Islam, Kalidas Karmakar indulged in Printmaking -sometimes as a subsidiary course to their main subject and sometimes as one interested in working in a new medium (Shahid, 2018; Alom, 2024). 

This artist, who acquired some form of aid or scholarship, could continue to work within the conductive art-atmosphere in the Institution and at the same time work with a new medium. Certain artist from other art - institution, but with a similar urge and intention to continue work under some eminent artist also worked in the Intaglio medium; in these decades many from the Faculty also availed of foreign scholarships and took up Printmaking as their medium of expression. They returned with experience and expertise to continue work in this medium. According to Selim, (2019) contemporary Bangladeshi art is shaped by an interaction between historical memory, regional cultural traditions, and global artistic practices.  

This study explores a qualitative, analytical and art-historical research methodology to analyze the development, techniques, materials, experimentation and contemporary practice of intaglio printmaking in Bangladesh throughout liberation war. Intaglio is a printmaking technique where the image is created below the surface of a plate through engraving, scrat-ching, or chemical etching; etching, drypoint, aquatint, and engraving are among its main techniques. In the part of analysis of art work extensive use of literature published on printmaking and contemporary visual arts. Literature sources also took from of books, exhibition catalogues and journals on Bangladeshi art. Besides these different types of journals, articles book will be used as instrument to accomplish the research work flawlessly.

Safiuddin Ahmed

Safiuddin Ahmed (1922-2012) is a master artist and a great teacher of arts in the field of modern printmaking. In the first half of 20th century, only a few respected artists worked to transform printmaking of the Indian subcontinent into modern art- Safiuddin Ahmed is one of them (Falvo, 2011 and University of Dhaka, n.d.).

Fig. 1: Safiuddin Ahmed, The Cry, copper engraving, 31x22cm, 1980. Source:  Correspondent, S. (n.d.). SAFIUDDIN AHMED A legend of prints. The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net

The techniques he dealt with successfully are: wood engraving, dry point, etching, aquatint, metal engraving and so on. He has demonstrated man, nature, the relationship between man and nature, political and historical incidents, lifestyle of marginalized people of the society and many things like these throughout his artwork (Rob, 2025). 

Moreover, the sufferings of the flood affected people, the horrible images of the language movement and liberation war have been depicted through his print works simultaneously. Print work was not that much influential in 1970s but a lot of experimental works were noticed in 1980s and these were created using intaglio technique. Symbolical use of eye sight got more importance at that time. ‘The Cry' (See Fig. 1) and ‘The language Movement' in these two artworks his observation of economic and political struggles of the people of this country can be seen. This glorious struggle holds two great movements. One is the language movement of 1952 and another is the liberation war of 1971. To keep the memories of language movement and liberation war, he portrays the horrible memories, sufferings and sorrows of the people through his artworks of different techniques.  In 1988  famous artwork was completed by Safiuddin titled ‘In memory of 71' (Fig. 2).He used copper engraving technique for it and vertically its dimension was 20x32 cm. Eyes of different shapes are found at the underneath of the picture. 

Fig. 2: Safiuddin Ahmed, In Memories of 71, Copper engraving 32 X 20cm,1988. Source: Rahman. (2022). Welcome to Shilpaguru Safiuddin Ahmed. https://safiuddinahmed.com/

This picture retains not only the mixed feelings of people but also focuses on the unrest time when the Bengalis were fighting for liberation. An eye can express a huge symbolical meaning too. Eyes can express hatred, frustration, depression and anger towards a person on the other hand eyes can hold teardrop in it. Eyes of different kinds like of men, women, infants, fighters all are presented here by the delicate strokes. His extreme sense of patriotism has been expressed through this picture. He wanted to keep the sorrowful memories of this country along with its originality and emotional attachment with other things. To keep the memories of language movement and liberation war, he portrays the horrible memories, sufferings and sorrows of the people through his artworks of different techniques (Falvo, 2012 and Ahmed, n.d.). In sharp contrast to that was his neat and precise prints where waves, curves, lines and dots blended with one another to reflect sunshine and harmony over the land of rivers, boats, and birds in the valleys. After the massacre of March 25, Safiuddin and his family- wife, two sons and daughter, stayed back in their Shamibagh house as they had no village home to escape to. At one point however, his wife and children went away to his sister-in law's house in Manikganj and Safiuddin remained all alone in the house with his dog. The days were filled with the terror of being picked up by the Pak Army any time and the horror of the atrocities all around; this is reflected in his drawings at the time which later became colored engravings. Safiuddin and his family - wife, two boys, and daughter - stayed at their Shamibagh home during the March 25 slaughter because they had nowhere to flee to in the community. However, Safiuddin was left alone in the house with his dog when his wife and kids moved out to live with his sister-in-law in Manikganj. The days were filled with the anxiety of being picked up by the Pak Army any time and the horror of the atrocities all around; this is represented in his sketches at the time which subsequently became colored engravings. Millions of people were displaced across the border in 1971 as a result of the refugee experience, making displacement an historical and cultural subject for artistic representation (Dasgupta, 2016; Biswas, 2023).

Mohammad Kibria

Mohammad Kibria is one of the pioneers of printmaking of Bangladesh who worked to take Bangladeshi printmaking into the modern era. His contribution to fine arts of Bangladesh is unavoidable and he worked to develop the field as it is now. Following the modern techniques of west and he mixes the indigenous consciousness and tradition the western modernism (Selim, 2007; Phoutrides, 2019). His mastery in practicing expressive abstract art and his originality, creativity transcendence in printmaking are rare. Artist Mohammad Kibria did many experiments on etching and aquatint techniques and was successfully created his own style. He searched life in nature, or immersion, or grief; that made the idea of modernism lively. Following the thoughts of his unconscious mind, he created abstractions. 

Fig. 3: Kibria, Memorial VII, Etching, 1979. Source: Nazir, A. (2004). Mohammad Kibria. (S. Choudhury, Ed.) Dhaka: Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

The late 1970s print work “Memorial VII” (See Fig. 3) proves his proficiency and talent. In this picture the use of spruced form and texture got more importance than diversified etching strokes. Rustic and fatty strokes come down from up rhythmically. In the lower part, some broken black strokes can be seen. Countless white dots are coming down from the upper side. As if raindrops are coming down in natural command. In the underneath, on white color black forms stone alike can be seen. Examples of medium experiment can be found here. Use of different tonal variations and textures on one color take this picture into another level. Though it is a one-colored picture, it appears as a colored picture. His print works reflect the matter of monochrome. Another important contemporary print work of him is “Memory III” (See Fig. 4) . Form and color covering the texture of underneath create an antiphony which enchants one's soul. Besides, he did not use one texture everywhere rather textures were diversified in nature. There is an inner form of any picture which conflicts with the surface, he points that out successfully (Zaman, 2011).

Fig. 4: Kibria, Memorial VII, Etching, 1979. Source: Nazir, A. (2004). Mohammad Kibria. (S. Choudhury, Ed.) Dhaka: Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.

At first appearance, Kibria's artwork seems to be less strongly connected to political and social history than that of artists like Safiuddin Ahmed, Quamrul Hassan or Zainul Abedin. Nevertheless, this does not mean that his work was unrelated to Bangladeshi culture. Rather his experimentation may be developed an abstract visual Language within the institutional and cultural context of Bangladesh (Chakrabarty, 2026).

Murtaza Bashir

Murtaza Bashir is arguably one of the most well-known and influential artists of the 1950s. Born on 17 August 1932 in Dhaka. His father was Muhammad Shahidullah who was a renowned linguist of the sub-continent. In 1949 Murtaza Bashir started a fine art education as a second batch student in Dhaka Government Institute of Arts (now the Institute of Fine Arts). He wandered in almost all the sectors of art. In almost all aspects of the painting such as drawing, graphics or printmaking, oils, mosaics his roaming spontaneity, he is working from a student life. He worked occasionally in the style of print, with a break. In 1954, he graduated and then in 1956-58 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and then in Paris. Printmaking attracted him after going to paris. Especially, he learned about the creativity of the Intaglio method. He studied mosaic and etching at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris during 1971–73. In 1970s, his works were in intaglio technique and there were a lot of tonal strokes and diversification intextures. Etching, aquatint and dry point techniques of intaglio successfully expressed his feelings and emotions. According to Fayza Hoque, “Murtaza Baseer presents his age-old theme of mother adoring her child, done with careful lines. This 1973 etching, done in a single plate, is a symbol of hope, and is completed in yellow-ochre and leafy green” (Star weekend magazine, 2009).