Abdur Razzaque (1932-2005), a painter, printmaker and sculptor who belonged to the generation that emerged in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in the 1950s and studied at Dhaka’s newly founded art school, now Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. Abdur Razzaque hailed from Shariatpur and spent the early years of his life in Faridpur. In 1949, he gained admission into the Government College of Art and Craft, thus making Dhaka his locus of artistic activities. In 1954 he graduated from the art institution with a first-class and served as an artist-cum-museum curator, in Malaria Research Institute of Dhaka for a year. A Fulbright Scholarship was offered to him in 1955 by the State University of Iowa, in fine arts for post-graduate studies. Later the same university offered him an International Scholarship and Research Assistantship in the same field. After returning to Dhaka, Razzaq became a faculty at the then Government College of Art and Craft and went on to become the founder head of the sculpture department in 1963. As a sculptor, Razzaque played a vital role in establishing sculpture as a modern medium of art in the country. His most iconic creation is titled Muktijoddha (Freedom Fighter), an 18-foot tall statue of a freedom fighter that sits on a 24-foot high podium at a road intersection in Joydebpur. As a painter he is considered one of the pioneers of abstraction in the country.