Sadequain: A Muralist, Calligrapher, Poet and a rare visionary Part-1

Sadequain: A Muralist, Calligrapher, Poet and a rare visionary Part-1

Sadequain (1930-1987) would go down in the history of painting in Pakistan in particular and rest of the world in general as a genuine painter, who left so many footsteps that many are copying till date.

Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi, also often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, or just Sadequain was born in 1930. At the age of 31, his work won recognition at the 1961 Paris Biennale. Sadequain had a prolific career and much of his work is displayed in public
places.

During his life, Sadequain became a cult figure with a large following from all walks of life. The content of his work has wider appeal, and the early works addressed social evils. In the later decades, Sadequain used the unifying spirit of calligraphy to
appeal to the masses, who came in large numbers to see his exhibitions.

Basically, Sadequain was a social commentator. His murals generally depicted man’s endless quest to discover and develop the endless potentialities that lie within him and without.

The whole pageant of man’s triumphal progress, past, present and future is captured in line and color in one magnificent form. His murals are densely filled and tightly packed with images to render adequately the lofty subject.

The images that Sadequain’s brush strokes produced are not only rich in symbolic meaning but visually so much variegated that the eye travels fascinated from point to point.

Sadequain was responsible for the renaissance of Islamic Calligraphy in Pakistan. He was one of the greatest calligraphers of his time who transformed the art of calligraphy into eye-catching expressionist paintings.

His calligraphy comes from a divine inspiration, giving it a dimension of space and movement. He carried the script with a flourish in all directions, giving it the power of space, vigour and volume.

In Pakistan, the art of calligraphy was relegated to a second class status until Sadequain adapted this medium in the late nineteen sixties. To that time, calligraphy was restricted to few "ustads" of drawing in schools and were not avaialable to general
public.

To be continued…

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Posted by Naveed A Bari on Apr 5 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