Born in 1939 in Faridpur, Bengal, Chowdhury studied at the Government College of Art and Crafts, Kolkata, from 1955-60, followed by a stint at L'Ecole Nationale Superior des Beax-Arts, Paris, in 1965-67 on a French Government Scholarship.

While in Paris, he attended William Hayter’s Atelier 17. In 1968, he returned to India and subsequently joined the Calcutta Painters Group in 1970. His first collection of poems ‘Hridoy Train Beje Othey’ also came out in 1970. In 1975, he was one of the founder members of Gallery 26 and Artists’ Forum in Calcutta.

Jogen Chowdhury is known for his seamless integration of traditional imagery into the larger rubric of contemporary painting. In his works, one can see a successful blend of an urbane self-awareness and a highly localised Bengali influence. So the local and the global seem to coexist in Jogen Chowdhury’s works.  

In 1966, Chowdhury was awarded the Prix le France de la Jeune Peinture in Paris, and, in 1986, received an award at the Second Biennale of Havana, Cuba. He was presented the Kalidas Sanman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2001. The artist lives and works in Santiniketan.