Shahabuddin Ahmed is known for his paintings that symbolise the pain, power, joy, freedom of movement, and indomitable spirit of humans in the face of odds Capturing figures of monumental proportions with heavy gestural brushstrokes and thick impasto, compositions by Shahabuddin Ahmed are unmistakably rhythmic and rely heavily on the power of motion His protagonists, transcending time and space, at times seem enthralled and engrossed in the cosmic dance in unison with the ethereal forces The rawness of his works, coupled with a unique amalgamation of monochromatic colours with bright shades, adds to their appeal

Born in 1950 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the artist was a student at the College of Arts and Crafts, Dhaka, where he emerged as an outstanding student However, at the beginning of Bangladesh's 1971 War for Liberation, he was enlisted as a platoon commander and fought at the battlefront The experience of war had a great impact on him and became an essential component of his artistic psyche through the succeeding years However, the artist has also executed works in other genres, such as portraits of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore The imagery of sports persons has also been a recurring motif in his works 

Post-war, the artist moved to Paris in 1974 on a government scholarship to study at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris While in Paris, he was introduced to the works of artist Francis Bacon which also influenced him significantly Shahabuddin Ahmed’s technique and creativity has earned him recognition and accolades on several occasions He was named one of the “50 Master Painters of Contemporary Art” during the Olympiad of Arts in Barcelona in 1992 He was also conferred with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Art and Literature), by the French government in 2014 In 2017, he became the first foreign artist-in-residence at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi Apart from being showcased in several solo and group exhibitions around the world, his paintings are also housed in the collections of numerous prestigious galleries, including the Museum Olympic Lausanne, Switzerland and Bourg-En Brasse Museum, France