Sadequain’s calligraphy at Lahore Museum. Photo by islamic-arts.org
Sadequain’s calligraphy at Lahore Museum. Photo by islamic-arts.org
Sadequain’s calligraphy at Lahore Museum. Photo by islamic-arts.org
Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Pakistani Awards), also often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, was a world-renowned Pakistani artist, best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a painter. He is considered as one of the finest painters and calligraphers Pakistan has ever produced. Sadequain was responsible for the renaissance of Islamic calligraphy in Pakistan. He claimed that his transformation into a calligrapher was manifested by divine inspiration. He did not follow the tradition and created his own style of script. His alphabets exude motion, mood, and paint vivid pictures of the message of the word. 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.
Before Sadeqain, few painters had experimented with the medium in Pakistan. Sadequain is commended for bringing calligraphy into a mainstream art form, as most of the known Pakistani artists have followed Sadequain and calligraphic art now dominates the art scene. Sadequain also painted classical literature from the poetic verses of Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz. He belonged to the school of thought which enriched realism with lyricism. Sadequain Illustrated French Nobel Prize winning writer Albert Camus, Ghalib, Iqbal, and Faiz. Sadequain was the most prolific painter of the post partition Pakistan. He was constantly at work and he worked on large scale. He worked on large murals for public buildings symbolic of the collective labor of humanity and his work was mostly donated to the public.
Calligraphy panel at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, 20th century Sadequain (Pakistani, 1930–1987) Colors on wood. his calligraphic painting represents just one aspect of the Pakistani artist Sadequain’s oeuvre. He was from a family of scribes and had trained in calligraphy in his youth, but started his career with oil paintings and murals. His works depicting Cubist-like figures, seascapes, and landscapes, which often tackled moral and political issues, gained him local fame and state patronage in the 1950s. In 1961, he won recognition at the Paris Biennal and throughout the decade exhibited in the United States and Europe. But calligraphy remained an interest and he came to focus on this genre during the 1970s, when many modern artists of the Islamic world were returning to this traditional form of art. In this painting, Sadequain has arranged the inscription on a series of boats which, in the Qur’an, often symbolize safety and security. The inscription reads: “In the name of the memorable Qur’an. In the name of the glorious Qur’an. In the name of the pen and anything it writes.
He was a self-made, self taught painter, completely untraditional and above all, shows no signs of being inspired by any other master of art who lived before him or at his time.
Sadequain received well deserved decorations.
- 1960 – Government of Pakistan — “ Tamgha-e-Imtiaz”
- 1961 – Government of France — “Biennale de Paris”
- 1962 – President of Pakistan — “President’s Medal of Honor”
- 1975 – Government of Australia — “Cultural Award”
- 1980 – Government of Pakistan — “Sitara-e-Imtiaz”.
The following are a few of his memorable works and exhibitions;
- 1954 – Solo Exhibition in Quetta, Pakistan
- 1955 – Mural at Jinnah Hospital, Solo Exhibition at Frere Hall and at residence of Mr. Suhrawady.
- 1961 – Mural at State Bank of Pakistan, (62 x 10ft) titled as “Treasures of Time”. This mural illustrates human scientific development from Socrates to Einstein and Muhammed Iqbal. He was invited to France to illustrate French Nobel Prize Winning writer Albert Camus.
- 1963 – Several Exhibitions in USA
- 1963 – Illustrated “Le Etranger” in France
- 1967 – Mural at Mangla Dam Power House (200 x 30ft) titled as “Saga of Labor” This mural lime lights the importance of the working class and its contributions in a society. Completed in 3.5 months only.
- 1968 – Mural at Punjab University Library, titled as “Quest of Knowledge”
- 1969 – Calligraphic redention of “Sura-e-Rehman”
- 1973 – Murals at Lahore Museum entrance Hall and others (100 x 35ft) titled as “Evolution of Mankind”
- 1974 – Exhibitions in Middle East and Eastern Europe.
- 1976 – TV. Series “Mojiza-e-fun” on Sadequain Art.
- 1977 – Illustrated Mirza Ghalib (Indian Poet)
- 1979 – Mural in Abu Dhabi power house (70 x 12ft)
- 1981 – Murals painted at Aligarh (70 x 12ft), Banaras (70 x 12ft), Hyderabad and Geological Institute of Delhi, India (70 x 25ft)
- 1985 – Illustrated Faiz Ahmed Faiz (Pakistani Poet)
- 1986 – Mural at Frere Hall titled as “Arz-o-Samawat” (heaven and earth)
Rediscovering Sadequain: the artist of the dustbin
By Asim Fareed
ROME: In Pakistan, there is a tendency to view domestic and South Asian artistic endeavour as somehow separate from the global art front. This predilection may explain the reason that the inclusion of Sadequain Naqqash (1930-87) among the world’s greatest artists elicits almost self-deprecating surprise among art aficionados.
Sadequain, one of the first Pakistani painters to gain international recognition, is counted by most art historians as the greatest Pakistani painter, ever. But this suggests a hesitance to view his oeuvre within a broader historical context. Sadequain: The Holy Sinner, the catalogue raisonné by Hameed Haroon and Salima Hashmi should change that.
The whopping catalogue (at Rs 20,000 and available only in limited edition) comprises critiques and commentaries, many by revered art historians and illustrious contemporaries of Sadequain’s, including Indian painter MF Hussain. It also includes the accompanying text to last year’s once-in-a-lifetime retrospective at Mohatta Palace.
To its credit this remarkable tome does not mourn the tragic life of the artist. This is a holistic celebration of the works of Sadequain and it forces one to comprehend the impact they have left on Muslim and non-Muslim minds alike. Even Sadequain’s most ardent supporters stand to learn more about the depth of the artist’s vision.
The catalogue, which does not include Sadequain’s famed calligraphies of Ghalib’s and Quranic verses, reveals “the almost alien brilliance of his individuality”, writes art historian and Dawn publisher Mr Haroon. The profound link between Sadequain’s paintings and mankind’s broader intellectual and philosophical evolution is unmistakable.
The deconstructionist approach, in which artist and art are perceived as inexorably bound, remains the dominant force in contemporary art scholarship. The life of Paul Gaugain is one instance of this. Gaugain was an exceptionally complicated and self-conscious individual and his biography seeped into his art. Accounts of Gaugain’s escape to and life in “primitive” Tahiti infuse his works with legend.
The Holy Sinner reveals that the distance imposed between the biography and art is largely artificial. “To understand the forces that make Sadequain’s hands move in the way they do is to understand the man,” writes Mr Haroon. The forms and themes we observe in Sadequain’s works are a reflection of his character, his biography. Sadequain was self-destructive and spiritually tortured. To see this is to understand his work.
Deconstruction provides opportunity for discussing an artist whose manner, like that of Salvador Dali, was no less enigmatic than his work. “I am not an artist of the drawing room but of the dustbin,” Sadequain once said. When Sadequain died in 1987 after a sudden illness, the iconic figure was destitute and penniless, even though he was one of those few artists who had the patronage of the state.
One of the greatest successes of this latest homage is its unabashedly asserting Sadequain’s importance to world culture, and also the undeniable influence of world culture upon this frail unassuming hermit. It is in retrospect that we may now see that this unconventional figure was a vessel through which the divine communed with man.
Despite the universal implications of his works, the primary visual source for their contorted figurative style stems from the barren domestic landscapes he encountered when he arrived in Pakistan from Amroha, UP, India in 1948. The plains were host to fields of cacti that seemed to reach out to a merciless sun in the hopes of obscure salvation, it was their pleading hands that left an indelible mark on the artist. The painting, Treasures of Time, homage perhaps to the School of Athens, depicts the stars of Eastern and Western civilization including Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Buddha, Dante, Shakespeare, Ghalib and Rabindranath Tagore. Sadequain has also included his self-portrait in this constellation but the rendering comes off humble, even ironic.
This painting betrays Sadequain’s interest in the progress of mankind, his belief that greatness rises above nationhood, race, and religion, and also his own very human concern over what legacy he would leave behind. The Holy Sinner shows us the resilience of Sadequain’s legacy to the wears of time.
The author is a student of art history in Italy
- http://islamic-arts.org
- http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-1-2004_pg7_24
