To commemorate 50 years of Bangladesh-India friendship, an exhibition of the works of award-winning Bangladeshi printmaker and painter Rokeya Sultana was opened for public viewing at the Indian Cultural Centre in Gulshan Wednesday.

Professor Muntassir Mamoon – eminent historian, writer, and chair of 1971 Genocide Torture Archive and Museum – and Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami joined the function.

They also launched a recently published monograph on Rokeya's works produced by the Bengal Foundation in close collaboration with the artist.

The event in Dhaka is a curtain-raiser for the first standalone show of the artworks of Rokeya in India, which will open on October 23 in New Delhi's Lalit Kala Academy.

The exhibition of artworks will also travel to Kolkata in December 2021 and is being fully hosted by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

The public display of Rokeya's work, curated and arranged by the Bengal Foundation, traces the artist's fascinating trajectory from her years as a student in Shantiniketan, trained under the guidance of Somnath Hore, Sanat Kar, and Lalu Prasad Shaw to the flowering of her artistic career in Bangladesh with Safiuddin Ahmed and Mohammad Kibria among her mentors.

Rokeya received recognition in the 9th Asian Biennale and the National Art Exhibition, Dhaka; the 3rd Bharat Bhavan Biennale, India; and a residency scholarship to L'Atelier Lacouriere et Frelaut, Paris.

She obtained her masters degree in fine arts from Vishwa Bharati, Shantiniketan under an ICCR scholarship in 1983.