Novera Ahmed (29 March 1939 – 6 May 2015) was a modern sculptor of Bangladesh. She was awarded

Ekushey Padak Ekushey Padak ( bn, একুশে পদক; lit. "Twentyfirst Award") is the second highest civilian award in Bangladesh, introduced in memory of the martyrs of the Bengali Language Movement of 1952. The award is given to recognize contribut ...

by the Government of Bangladesh in 1997. Artist

Zainul Abedin Zainul Abedin (29 December 1914 – 28 May 1976) was a Bangladeshi painter born in Mymensingh, East Bengal, British India (now Bangladesh). He became well known in 1944 through his series of paintings depicting some of the great famines in ...

described her work saying "What Novera is doing now will take us a long time to understand – she is that kind of an artist."

Early life and education

Ahmed was born on 29 March 1939, in Sundarbans in the then

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Her ancestral home was in Chittagong. She studied in Calcutta and

Comilla Comilla (; bn, কুমিল্লা, Kumillā, ), officially spelled Cumilla, is the fifth largest city of Bangladesh and second largest in Chittagong division. It is the administrative centre of the Comilla District. The name Comilla was ...

. In 1955 she was awarded a diploma in Design in the Modeling and Sculpture course from

Camberwell College of Arts Camberwell College of Arts is a public tertiary art school in Camberwell, in London, England. It is one of the six constituent colleges of the University of the Arts London. It offers further and higher education programmes, including postgrad ...

in London. At Camberwell, she studied under the British sculptor

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American-British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1911. He often produce ...

and Karel Vogel of

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. In 1966, she met Danish artist

Asger Jorn Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...

in Paris. She studied European sculpture under the sculptor Venturino Venturi in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and later in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. She was influenced by many western modern sculptors such as Henry Moore.

Career

Ahmed jointly worked with Hamidur Rahman on the original design of the

Shaheed Minar, Dhaka The Shaheed Minar ( bn, শহীদ মিনার ''Shohid Minar'' lit. "Martyr Monument") is a national monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh, established to commemorate those killed during the Bengali Language Movement demonstrations of 1952 in th ...

. During 1956–1960, she had done about 100 sculptures in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

. Out of her 100 sculptures, 33 sculptures are currently in

Bangladesh National Museum The Bangladesh National Museum ( bn, বাংলাদেশ জাতীয় জাদুঘর), is the national museum of Bangladesh. The museum is well organized and displays have been housed chronologically in several departments like dep ...

. Ahmed's first exhibition was held in

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

in 1960. Another exhibition of her works was held in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

in 1961. Her last exhibition was also held in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in July 1973.

Style and technique

Ahmed's early works resembled geometrical forms made by stones and concrete and anthropomorphic forms - mixing the human figure and animals. Then she used iron and steel and later bronze. She began spray paintings, using plane crash remains from the US army (1964–1969). After her bad accident, her drawings included shapes and figures of a meditative character: space, island, birds in the sky, phoenix, flowers, water, sunshine and the moon, minimalist landscapes, human figures turned toward a new horizon and others.

Personal life

Ahmed was married to a police officer in mid 1954 in Calcutta. The couple got divorced in late 1954. She started living in France in the 1970s. She married Gregoire de Brouhns in 1984.

Death and legacy

Ahmed suffered a stroke in 2010 and she was in a wheelchair since then. She died on 6 May 2015 at a hospital in Paris, France. In August 2017, the ministry of cultural affairs of the

Government of Bangladesh The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( bn, গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ সরকার — ) is the central executive government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Co ...

announced a plan to purchase ten paintings of Ahmed for $47,000. On 29 March 2019, search engine

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

commemorated Ahmed with a

Doodle A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines or shapes, generally without ever lift ...

on her 80th birth anniversary.

Selected works

Image:Composition by Novera Ahmed.jpg, Composition Image:Reclining Figure.jpg, Reclining Figure Image:Seated Woman Sculpture.jpg, Seated Woman