Blog
Biography
The Legend:
Sadequain
Critically acclaimed artist and poet Sadequain is among only a handful of Pakistanis whose name and work would transcend through centuries.
Sadequain’s contribution to the field of arts is enormous, his contribution to the field of literature is immense, and his contribution to the nation is unparalleled and unsurpassed by academic standards or in its monetary value. He did not simply produce ordinary paintings to earn a living, but painted monuments and donated all to mankind. If sold in current market, his work is worth more than billion dollars.
His Contribution
Murals
Artistic Murals
Introduced monumental murals to the visual vocabulary of the country. Painted more than 45 murals, most of which are now housed in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. These murals represent an unparalleled body of artistic genius by any artist of the region. Most murals were donated to public institutions. Several have been destroyed.
Paintings
Rich Masterpieces
His palette included thousands of figurative works embodying universal subjects and Eastern forms. He introduced Pakistani art to the international art forums.
Dr. Akbar Naqvi wrote, “If Sadequain had done nothing but his drawings, he would still be considered one the innovators of art in the country.”
Poetry
Golden Words
Sadequain wrote thousands of rubaiyyat (quatrains) and illustrated many of them in his four volumes of Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain. The confluence of three genres — composition, inscription and illustration of rubaiyyat — is a singularly unique creation in Urdu literature. His rubaiyyat are a mirror to the society and expose the true face of hypocrisy.
Personality
His Aspects
In an interview he said, "People ask why I don't paint flowers, butterflies and landscapes? I tell them that I seek the truth and I am after reality. I am not inspired by someone posing against the backdrop of roses in a vase or pink curtains. What inspires me is a person who has gone hungry for hours and is struggling for survival. The expression that lights his face at the end of the day when he has finally found some scraps, that is what touches me. I am a painter of the expression of reality." Self-proclaimed "Faqir," Sadequain was outside society's worldly greed or hypocrisy and called himself "speaker of truth."
Sadequain was responsible for the renaissance of Islamic calligraphy in Pakistan. He was one of the greatest calligraphers of Pakistan and helped transform the art of calligraphy into serious expressionist paintings. He claimed that his transformation into a calligrapher was manifested by divine inspiration. He did not follow the established tradition and created his own style of script. His alphabets exude motion, mood, and paint vivid pictures of the message of the words of Quran. Sadequain claimed that many of his paintings, especially after the seventies, had been based on calligraphic forms to portray images of cities, buildings, forests, men, and women.
In Pakistan, the art of calligraphy was relegated to a second-class status until Sadequain adapted this medium in the late nineteen sixties. Until then a few painters experimented with the medium but it remained just that, an experiment. After Sadequain transformed the art of calligraphy into a mainstream art form, most of the known Pakistani artists have followed Sadequain and calligraphic art now dominates the art scene.
In the 1960s Sadequain was invited by the French authorities to illustrate the award-winning novel The Stranger by French writer Albert Camus. Sadequain also illustrated on canvas the poetry of Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz as homage to their place in classical literature. Sadequain wrote thousands of quartets, which address a common theme of social and cultural dogmas and published them.
A special word is warranted about the large murals Sadequain painted, which are spread all over the subcontinent. His murals depict man's struggle, his achievements and persistent thirst to discover his endless potential. His murals are full of activity, ideas, and they read like an unfolding story about their particular theme.
One of his most powerful works is the gigantic mural measuring 200×30 feet for the Power House of Mangla Dam. He completed it in an incredible period of three months during which he worked day and night. Aptly so, the mural is titled "The Saga of Labor," The mural, one of the largest in the world portrays the history of mankind. Its pays homage to its characters, which are exclusively labourers and worker, facing and struggling against the powerful elements of nature.
History
List of Works
