Abdus Shakur

Abdus Shakur (Arabic: عبد الشکور ‎) is a male Muslim given name, built on the Arabic words Abd, al- and Shakur. The name means "servant of the All-thankful", Ash-Shakūr being one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the Muslim theophoric names.

Because the Arabic letter corresponding to sh is a sun letter, the letter l of the al- is assimilated to it. Thus although the name is written with letters corresponding to Abd al-Shakur, the usual pronunciation corresponds to Abd ash-Shakur. Alternative transliterations include Abdul Shakoor and others, all subject to variant spacing and hyphenation.

Abdus Shakoor (painter)

Abdus Shakoor (born 31 December 1947) is a Bangladeshi painter and calligrapher.

Early life and career

Shakoor was born on 31 December in 1947 in the Bogra district of Bangladesh. His work focuses on ancestral and historical themes, following in the folk-tradition of Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan, Jamini Roy and Qayyum Chowdhury. Common themes in Shakoor's paintings include Bengali folk motifs and ballads; the Mahua and Malua love stories as well as the Nakshi Kanthar Math and the Maimansingha Gitika. He has illustrated his works with folk-motifs. Peacock and parrots as well as elephants, bulls, cats, tigers, serpents and lizards feature prominently in his works.

All of Shakoor's compositions are bordered with free-flowing thick brush lines. There is almost no hard line in the paintings. His style has been compared with European artists such as Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee.

He is chairman of the Craft Department in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Dhaka University.

Legacy

Among the awards Shakoor has won is a gold medal in the 15th National Art Exhibition at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Dhaka, in 2002.