Ismail Gulgee: An insight into life of Pakistan’s great painter Last-part

Ismail Gulgee: An insight into life of Pakistan’s great painter Last-part

Art critic Eric Gibson once remarked, Mr. Gulgee began as a portraitist, moving into his colour abstractions only in the past 20 years. These paintings are by far his most interesting.

In them, the artist is attempting to fuse two traditions: Islamic calligraphy, in which writing both carries a religious text and decorates a page, and the Western style of Abstract Expressionism, with its movemented brushstrokes.

These paintings combine the two traditions with grace and elegance, and at the same time manage to transcend them. The paintings stand as more than the sum of their sources".

"My biggest wish was that in my country, a time would come when people start having respect for artists".

That hasnt happened. Artists are so vulnerable. Their profession is so difficult. Zindagi, rozi kamane ke liye kitna mushkil hae [Life, is tough to earn a living].

How much they sacrifice to be an artist. Except for respect, there is nothing else they can get. And as he feared, this great painter along with his wife were murdered in his residence in December 2007

For his great contribution to the progress of art in Pakistan, he was awarded with Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (twice) and Hilal-e-Imtiaz.

Guljee’s exhibitions have mostly been available to few people. Keeping that in mind and high demand from public and lovers of his works, an art gallery for Guljee has been built in Clifton, Karachi near South City Hospital and Sea View Karachi. Guljee mostly
painted for his own inspirations and vision.

Gulgee, his wife Zarrin Gulgee and a maid were found dead in their house on the evening of December 19, 2007 by his servants. Police suspect that all three had been murdered.

The initial cause of death for all three has been attributed to suffocation. According to press reports, his son reported that Gulgee’s car and driver are missing. Gulgee was buried on the evening of December 20, 2007, in Karachi.

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Posted by Naveed A Bari on Apr 3 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry