Along with Zainul Abedin, Shafiuddin Ahmed, Anwarul Haque and a few of their colleagues, Quamrul Hassan has been credited with initiating a modern art movement in Bangladesh from the middle of the last century. While Zainul pursued a realist-romantic style often incorporating elements of folk art, and Shafiuddin chose to explore modernistic styles after his initial academic-realist phase, Quamrul decided to revive the folk tradition, and give it a contemporary currency by improvising on many of its stylistic aspects, particularly line, contour, volume and dimension. The stylized and repetitive forms of folk art became in Quamrul's hand more dynamic, elegant and sensuous. He painted human figures, natural object, trees, birds, fish and animals as well as landscapes and scenes from rural life in bold and flowing brush strokes and bright transparent colors. There is a strong narrative content in his paintings, which unlike in folk art, retains a sense of immediacy because of its resemblance to real-life situations. He graduated in Fine Arts from the Government Institute of Arts (presently, College of Arts and Crafts, Kolkata) in 1947.

One of the recurring themes in Quamrul has to do with the situation of women in villages where they live all their life within the confines of their homesteads. Quamrul's treatment of women- whom he preferred to paint mostly in groups of two or three but occasionally solo -despite the hardship they face in life is not entirely devoid of romanticism. The strong curved lines and the contrasted use of color (yellow, green, red and blue being predominant) contribute to a sensuous appeal that blunts the edges of harsh reality.

Quamrul also revived the pata (scroll) painting where figures are stylized, perspective is shallow and cluttered, and surface design is meticulous. He has told us that his first works in the pata tradition were displayed in an exhibition in Calcutta in 1946. That event proved to be momentous, as the pata tradition (he used to call himself a Patua, or pata-maker), together with other folk styles, contributed to the making of his style. That style, which is strongly figurative and narrative, with a vibrant and sensuous color scheme became a signatured one.

Quamrul was a versatile artist working in practically all media-oil, gouache, watercolors, pastel, etching, woodcut, linocut, pen and pencil. His woodcuts, particularly those he did after the devastating famine of 1974, were charged with feeling and anger. Quamrul used animal symbolism extensively (snakes, jackal, owl) to portray the evil nature of the perpetrators of the famine. During the war of liberation in 1971, a poster depicting the Pakistani dictator as a predator became immensely popular. Even hours before he collapsed (and eventually breathed his last) Quamrul portrayed the military dictator of the country in his favorite animal imagery.

Quamrul Hassan received several awards and honors for his contribution to art, among them the President's Gold Medal (1965), the Comilla Foundation Gold Medal (1977), the Independence Day Award (1979), Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Honour (1984) and Kazi Mahbubullah Trust Gold Medal (1987). He was made a Fellow of Bangla Academy in 1985. The artist was born in Bardhaman, West Bengal, India, on 2 December, 1921 .He died in Dhaka on 2 February 1988. Quamrul was strongly committed to the causes of the common people. A life long follower of leftist ideals, Quamrul was more than an artist-he was a crusader for truth and justice