In 1948 Faculty of Fine Art (Former Institute of Fine Arts) established with only three departments under the leadership of Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin. In 1955 Department of Oriental Art established with some optimistic motivation. The objective of Oriental Art Department is to practice the glorious and rich traditional art of Asia to save and nurture the continuity of our own art trend, following the objective and ideal of Bengal School, which originated in opposition to western academic realism. The students of Oriental Art Department have been practicing art with great success since 1955. The students of this department synthesize modern Western and Oriental Art with tradition. So an innovative ground is created in this department where modern Western and Oriental Art blend together. This blending enrich our art practice through nourish Bangladeshi traditional Art.

Artist Shafiqul Ameen was included as teacher at the early phase of the Department. Then artist Rashid Chowdhury (1958), artist Md. Abul Hashem Khan (1968), artist Aminul Islam (1972), artist Md. Abdus Sattar (1973), artist Nasreen Begum (1989) and artist Shawkatuzzaman (1992) had joined the department respectively.

The Department of Oriental Art is on the way of prosperity in all perspective with the active support of the teachers mentioned. Not only that teachers’ competence, creativity, participation in local and foreign workshops, exhibitions and achieved awards increased fame and respect of the department both in the country and abroad. This department is determined to spread these achievements to all over the world from the responsibility for the society and humanity. In this respect department’s reputation and the total number of students are increasing. The department offers four programs that include BFA, MFA, MPhil and PhD. The duration of BFA (honors) course is four years and MFA is two years.