Mustaque Ahmed was the founder trustee of Dhaka Art Centre. He is an avid art collector and a self-taught painter. His collections include contemporary Bangladeshi master painters, Indian master painters, Western contemporary artists and a number of promising Bangladeshi painters.

He said, "I was a fan of art from my childhood. When I was a student in school, I collected art related posters and often tried to paint. As a student of Dhaka College, I collected some reproductions of Van Gogh, Goya, Picasso and many others."

Mustaque left for USA to study Economics at The University of Texas at Arlington, where he also took Art History courses. During his stay in the USA, he met many celebrated artists, art historians, critics and art enthusiasts. He enjoys visiting art galleries and museums in the countries he travels to, in order to get familiar with the art and the art movement of those countries.

Upon his return from the USA, in 1985, he said, "Dhaka's art scene was moderate and not as exciting as now. Sporadic exhibitions were held at Sheraton Hotel's (now InterContinental Dhaka) temporary venues and more frequently at the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka, from where I began collecting photographs, paintings and tapestries of well-known artists; namely - Anwar Hossain; Alamgir Haque, Tajuddin Ahmed and Rashid Chowdhury."

Louis Cook, a close friend of Mustaque and a great art aficionado, lived in a quiet corner of Gulshan. He too was excited about Bangladeshi artists and their talents. Together in the late '80s, they organised an art exhibition in an open space in Gulshan, where artists Aminul Islam, Shahabuddin Ahmed, Jamal Ahmed and others took part.

Among contemporary Bangladeshi painters, Mohammad Kibria is Mustaque favourite. He said, "Elegance, simplicity, serenity are the prime traits of Kibria's paintings. I also like his application of colour and the separation of colours in his paintings."

Mustaque has a number of artworks of Quamrul Hassan in different mediums. He collected the works from different sources. He has a fascination for Shahabuddin's paintings and has a number of oil paintings of him. He says, "Shahabuddin's work portrays the strength, power and struggle of the people of Bangladesh; his canvas is not tranquil, and always appears very bold."

Mustaque has a number of commendable collections of Safiuddin Ahmed, Abdul Baset, Rafiqun Nabi, Samarjit Roy Chowdhury, Monirul Islam, Syed Jahangir, Shahid Kabir, Abul Barq Alvi, Mohammad Eunus, Ranjit Das, Chandra Shekhor Dey, Tajuddin Ahmed and Iftikhar Uddin Ahmed among others.

Amidst the young painters from Bangladesh, late Ali Akbar, Mainuddin, Shulekha Chowdhury are his favourites.

India's Jamini Roy, Somnath Hore and some other contemporary painters' works have also enriched Mustaque's collections. His collections include prints of Picasso, Joan Miró, Ferdinand Gehr, Malcolm Arnold and drawings of Robert Birmelin. He stated, "Birmelin's paintings are brilliant in the way they confront us with a variety of urban spaces and surfaces, including human surfaces". The painter portrays the energies of a vibrant city (New York) in a continuous realistic image. The images are full of psychological as well as material detail.

Mustaque Ahmed is a self-taught painter who has been quite active in the Dhaka art circuit. He loves nature and its imaginative world propels him to paint. He works on varied subjects but his special attention is on nature and human relationships. He fervently draws the psychological temperament of human beings, their expressions and relationships. The mingling of light and shade creates a silence and serenity in his works. Nature is closely connected to his soul, as he adores basking in it. His colours can be easily interpreted by our soul and mind. Subdued and vivid -- both kinds of hues -- are properly executed on his canvas.

Mustaque enjoys movies and is also a filmmaker. His documentary "Die Million '71" recently received the International Bangla Film Critic Award 2011 in Kolkata. The documentary addresses the subject of genocide during the Liberation War of Bangladesh.

Mustaque has always been very interested in new ideas and contemporary culture and art have always been an important part of that. His collections also have various sections, there is a figurative and objective section, a landscape section, a section on the Liberation War, Language Movement, scenic beauty of the country, and an abstract or cutting edge section. He is open to new thought, which allows him to be interested in all avenues of creativity.