Traditions & vernacular · 1950–present · South Asia
Dhaka Rickshaw Painting
Also known as Bangladeshi rickshaw art, Rickshaw painting
Oil paintings made by street artists on the metal back-board and canvas hood of cycle rickshaws in Bangladesh. Film stars, flowers, birds, landscapes and religious scenes appear in bold, raw colours, framed by borders and decked with appliqué, tinsel and plastic flowers. UNESCO inscribed it in 2023. Unlike the chrome, bone and wood work of pakistani-truck-art or the jeepney's metal ornament, its core is a framed oil picture panel, often led by a film-star portrait, with a plainer appliquéd hood.
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Use it with care
This is a living craft practised by working, rarely credited artisans, tied to Bangladeshi communities and particular districts, and it is endangered as rickshaws decline; imitate its manner with care, credit makers where known (some sign with steel pins) and do not present pastiche as authentic rickshaw art.
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How it works
- Paint in oil in bold, raw colours such as fluorescent green and dark red, which also weather well.
- Treat the rear back-board as a framed picture panel and the hood as a second surface for appliqué.
- Crowd the panel with popular subjects: film actresses, flowers, birds, landscapes, mosques and geometric borders.
- Add tassels, tinsel, cut-out appliqué and plastic flowers so the whole vehicle becomes ornament.
- Carry the driver's own wishes, devotion or occasional social comment, and keep the district's local manner.
Dhaka and Rajshahi, Bangladesh; oil paintings on rickshaw back-boards and hoods, with distinct styles per district
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Its design choices
From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.
- Layout & composition
- Space & hierarchy
- Typography
- Colour
- Form & shape
- Surface & texture
- Ornament
- Imagery
- Medium & production
- Tone & intent
- Avoids
- Ornament-free, Modular grid, Generous white space, Monochrome, Grotesque & neo-grotesque, Desktop publishing
Palette
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#1f9d3a -
#8b1a1a -
#f2c200 -
#1b4fa0 -
#e8559b -
#111111
Typefaces
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Hand-painted Bangla lettering
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Hand-painted Latin and Arabic-script lettering for names and religious phrases
Known for
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Dhaka rickshaws and rickshaw painting, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity
2023
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Mohammad Hanif Pappu, Old Dhaka rickshaw painter and founder of Pappu's Art School for All
self-taught
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Regional types of Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Comilla rickshaws
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Make something in this style
Say what you need, and Stylogeny’s image studio draws it from Dhaka Rickshaw Painting’s design choices and checks it against them. It takes about a minute, and you get a link to share.
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Where it comes from, and what it’s close to
Before it
The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.
After it
The styles that grew out of it.
No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.
Alike in its design choices
Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.
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Often taken for
Dhaka Rickshaw Painting has no real works recorded yet, so these are its nearest styles by its choices alone, with the choices that tell them apart.
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Pakistani Truck Art
1 of Pakistani Truck Art’s 4 real works fits Dhaka Rickshaw Painting’s choices better than its own: Painted flatbed truck with parrots and a mountain-lake panel.
Choices that tell Dhaka Rickshaw Painting and Pakistani Truck Art apart Choice Dhaka Rickshaw Painting Pakistani Truck Art Painterly brushwork defining occasional Angular & zigzag — characteristic Found & vernacular imagery characteristic — Pattern & repeat — characteristic Single focal point characteristic — Both descend from Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering in the family tree.
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Swedish Painted Wall Hangings (Dalmålning, Bonadsmålning and Kurbits)
Swedish Painted Wall Hangings is one of Dhaka Rickshaw Painting’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Dhaka Rickshaw Painting and Swedish Painted Wall Hangings apart Choice Dhaka Rickshaw Painting Swedish Painted Wall Hangings Gloss & highlights occasional avoids Sequential narrative — defining Fluorescent & neon characteristic — Flat fields occasional defining Naturalistic depiction characteristic — No shared descent in the atlas: they reached these choices separately.
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Jeepney Art
Jeepney Art is one of Dhaka Rickshaw Painting’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Dhaka Rickshaw Painting and Jeepney Art apart Choice Dhaka Rickshaw Painting Jeepney Art Floral & vegetal defining — Gradients — characteristic Fluorescent & neon characteristic — Comic & cartoon — characteristic Single focal point characteristic — Both descend from Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering in the family tree.
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Picó Sound-System Painting (Colombian Caribbean)
Picó Sound-System Painting is one of Dhaka Rickshaw Painting’s nearest styles by choices; no real work of either fits the other better.
Choices that tell Dhaka Rickshaw Painting and Picó Sound-System Painting apart Choice Dhaka Rickshaw Painting Picó Sound-System Painting Floral & vegetal defining — Central symmetry occasional defining Abundant decoration defining occasional Dark ground — characteristic Stylised figuration characteristic — Both descend from Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering in the family tree.
— means the choice isn’t among the style’s recorded choices. Critics recorded each work’s choices with the styles’ descriptions in view, so this shows whether the descriptions hold together, not proof that they are right.
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Combine it with
Styles Dhaka Rickshaw Painting pairs well with or plays against, from the research. Each is worked out as a combination: which style gives the type, the colours and the forms.
- Hand-Painted Bollywood Poster Pairs well · Painted film-star faces are a core subject; rickshaw painters often began as cinema-poster painters.
- Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering Contrasts · Signage is lettering-led and restrained; rickshaw art is image-led and crowded.
- Kalighat Pat & Battala Bazaar Prints Pairs well · Another Bengali popular-picture tradition made by working artists for ordinary buyers.
- Jeepney Art Pairs well · Another street-vehicle painting tradition; rickshaw art is picture-panel and portrait-led rather than metal-trimmed and lettering-heavy.
- Egyptian Painted Film Poster Pairs well · Painted film stars as street-level spectacle.
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Sources
- UNESCO, Rickshaws and rickshaw painting in Dhaka, Intangible Cultural Heritage, decision 18.COM 8.b.23 (December 2023): https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/rickshaws-and-rickshaw-painting-in-dhaka-01589
- Wikipedia, Rickshaw art: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickshaw_art
- The Daily Star, Pappu's Art School for All brings rickshaw painting to everyone: https://www.thedailystar.net/life-living/news/pappus-art-school-all-brings-rickshaw-painting-everyone-3957656
- Joanna Kirkpatrick, Transports of Delight: The Rickshaw Arts of Bangladesh (1985)
How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.