Sadequain Foundation
Drawings
It is said that drawing skill is as essential for an artist as the knowledge of alphabets is to a writer. Sadequain skillfully sketched pen and ink portraits starting at age 14 or earlier and regularly drew portraits of people on the trains when he traveled in early 1950s between Karachi and interior parts of the Sindh province, street corners, his close friends, and most of his household members. In a world where artists gain credibility by doing portraits of those who can afford to pay handsomely, Sadequain’s pure passion was to employ his skills to service those who could not afford it. Read More… [gallery link=u0022fileu0022 columns=u00224u0022]
Library and Essays
Sadequain (1930-1987) was the most original artist, calligrapher, and poet of our times. Prolific, diverse, and intense, his remarkable career spanned over three decades. Raymond Congiat, an eminent art critique of France wrote in Le Figaro of France that Sadequain was the only serious artist from the sub-continent who adds up the impression of space, density, volume and the reality of matter, which transforms an abstract thought into a material fact. The mammoth book “The Holy Sinner: Sadequain” recently published, is a tribute and celebration of this Pakistani artist’s vitality, innovation, restless fervor and immense amount of energy. This book launched as the third stage of a monumental project with the same title is possibly the largest art project in the sub-continent to pay tribute to a single artist under the aegis of Mohatta Palace Museum. The first stage of the project was an exhibition of paintings of Sadequain under the same title and the second stage of the project; a black and white catalogue of Sadequain’s work was launched last year. The fourth stage of the project will consist of four documentaries; both in Urdu and English language and one special feature film would be produced about the internationallyu0026hellip;
Murals
His murals paid homage to the struggle of the working class, the challenges and opportunities for the mankind, the bounties of mother earth, human progress through the ages, and hope for the future. His work often highlighted the issues of socio-economic struggle that Sadequain used as an effective vehicle for social expression. Sadequain said that his murals are to educate and inspire as well as to foster a sense of identity and pride in the members of the community. Read More.. [gallery link=u0022fileu0022 columns=u00224u0022]
Paintings
Retrospect An exposure to Sadequain’s prodigious palette is a sight to behold. In a pure poetic Indo-Persian tradition, Sadequain employed powerful symbolism and metaphoric gestures in his paintings with abundance. He painted various series of paintings, each series rich with distinct creative idioms. Major body of his work can be categorized as Cactus Series, Mystic Figurations Series, Sun Series, Cobweb Series, Crow and Scarecrow Series, House of Cards Series, Sar-ba-Kuf Series, and Crucifixion Series, to name a few. His monumental murals exhibit sheer genius and his calligraphic work ushered in the renaissance of calligraphic art in Pakistan that cast him in a larger than life posture. Read More… [gallery link=u0022fileu0022 columns=u00224u0022]
Poetry
Poetic Justice Sadequain belonged to the fertile small town of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, India, which had produced a number of eminent scholars, poets, and many other prominent luminaries in the past. It was his great grand father, under whose tutelage Mir Taqi Mir – considered the father of Urdu poetry – developed his poetic skills at an early age. Read More… [gallery link=u0022fileu0022 columns=u00224u0022]
SADEQUAIN Foundation at Pakistan High Commission in London, UK
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