Ekushey Padak winning artist Kalidas Karmakar, a painter and printmaker of international repute, passed away on Friday afternoon. He was 73. “He fell down in the bathroom after suffering a cardiac arrest around 1:30pm at his Eskaton residence. He was taken to Labaid Specialized Hospital where the doctor pronounced him dead around 2pm,” Sourav Chowdhury, the Executive Art Director of Gallery Cosmos, told UNB. The body has been kept at BIRDEM General Hospital. His mortal remains will be cremated after his two daughters return to Bangladesh from the US.  Kalidas Karmakar was an adviser of Gallery Cosmos. Born on January 10, 1946, in Faridpur, Kalidas completed his graduation from the Government College of Fine Arts and Crafts in Kolkata in 1969.  He completed his pre-degree study in Fine Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka University in 1964.  Kalidas Karmakar was awarded the Shilpakala Padak in 2016 and the Ekushey Padak in 2018 for his contribution to fine arts. His diverse artworks featuring found objects, handmade paper, and oil on canvas prints have been widely exhibited throughout South Asia, Middle East, Europe, and the United States.  The artist’s very first solo art exhibition was held at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy on August 7, 1976. He won the Polish Government Scholarship in Graphic Art at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Art, Warsaw University; French Government Superior Scholarship in Fine Arts, for research in multicolor etching at Atelier-17, in Paris; Japan Foundation Fellowship on Japanese Woodblock Printing, at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music; ICCR Special Scholarship for research in Contemporary Modern Sculpture, West Bengal Lalit Kala Academy Studio; and Asian Cultural Council New York, Fellowship with Artist Residency program in USA. In 2006, he received an ACC Fellowship to participate in a residency at the Point B Work lodge in Brooklyn. Major works by the artist have been collected by Kihak Sung, Youngone Corporation, Korea and Bangladesh, Hiroshi Toda, Takeo Yamaki, Takashi Kobayashi, Abul Khair, Chairman, Bengal Foundation, Ambassador Paulo Da Costa Franco, and many other private collectors, at home and abroad. Source: UNB AH