Shamim Sikder

Shamim Sikder (22 October 1952 – 21 March 2023) was a Bangladeshi sculptor. Sikder served as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka between 1980–2001. She was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 2000 by the Government of Bangladesh. Her father Abdur Razzaq Sikder belonged to a prominent Bengali Muslim zamindar family from Chaygaon, Assam. In 1971, she became the first graduate of Sculpture in Bangladesh from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. In 1976, Sikder moved to the Sir John Cass School of Art in London (currently the School of Art, Architecture and Design (London Metropolitan University)) at the age of 23.

Career

Sikder served as a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka between 1980–2001. Swadhinata Sangram (1999)

Shamim Sikder’s sculpture garden Shwadhinota Sangram was demolished after the fall of the Hasina regime on 5 August 2024. The sculpture included 103 miniature sculpture of prominent Bengali and international intellectuals along with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's statue.

Personal life

Sikder was known for her flamboyant trailblazing character. She would drive her motorbike, fashioned in her leather and denim jackets to commute to Dhaka University in the 1970s. She was married to Zakaria Chowdhury a Bengali language movement activist and Member of Parliament from Habiganj-2. Chowdhury was instrumental in forming the Haor Development Board by president Ziaur Rahman in 1977. He was also the publisher of The Manobkantha. She had two children with him, a son and daughter who currently reside in London. After her retirement in 2001, she moved to London, United Kingdom where she continued sculpting.

Shamim Sikder was a notable figure in Bangladeshi popular culture. Anthony Mascarenhas narrated in his book Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood that Sikder had accused Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the extrajudicial killing of her brother, revolutionary politician Siraj Sikder. She was allegedly the subject of Ahmed Sofa's novel Ardhek Nari Ardhek Ishvari (Half Women Half Goddess, 1995). Sikder was also a character in Humayan Ahmed's last novel Deyal in which he chronicles the socio-political crisis in the aftermath of the war of independence of Bangladesh.

Death In 2022 she returned to Bangladesh with the hopes of preserving her works including reconstructing Zainul Abedin's sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Dhaka. Sikder died on 21 March 2023, at the age of 70 in Dhaka. She is survived by a son and daughter who live in London, United Kingdom.

Gallery

Awards Ekushey Padak (2000) Prime Minister's Award for Sculpture (1974)