Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi () (30 June 1930 10 February 1987), and often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash ("Sadequain the Painter"), was a Pakistani artist and poet best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a painter. He is considered one of the finest painters and calligraphers Pakistan has ever produced, having painted around 15,000 paintings.Sadequain: Pakistan’s Great Painter and Calligrapher by pakistanthinktank.org Retrieved 9 February 2018 He was also a poet, writing hundreds of rubāʿiyāt in the style of Omar Khayyam and Sarmad Kashani.Iftikhar Dadi, Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia, Univ of North Carolina Press (2010), p. 170
Early life Sadequain was born on 30 June 1930 in Amroha, into an educated Shia family who considered calligraphy a valuable skill. The artist claimed to own seven Qurans calligraphed by his ancestors and family. He migrated to Pakistan with his family during the 1947 partition, residing in the Nazimabad neighbourhood of Karachi. In the late 1940s he joined the Progressive Writers' and Artists Movement. He was supported by politician Huseyn Suhrawardy.Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy: a biography, Oxford University Press, 1991.
Medium of work Calligraphy
Sadequain was widely praised for his calligraphy by many critics of South Asian art.
Sadequain was part of a broader Islamic art movement, known as the Hurufiyya movement, which emerged independently across North Africa and parts of Asia in the 1950s.Dadi. I., "Ibrahim El Salahi and Calligraphic Modernism in a Comparative Perspective," South Atlantic Quarterly, 109 (3), 2010 pp 555-576, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-2010-006; Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds) A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294 Hurufiyah refers to the attempt by artists to combine traditional art forms, notably calligraphy as a graphic element within a contemporary artwork.Mavrakis, N., "The Hurufiyah Art Movement in Middle Eastern Art," McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Blog, Online: https://mjmes.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/article-5/;Tuohy, A. and Masters, C., A-Z Great Modern Artists, Hachette UK, 2015, p. 56; Flood, F.B. and Necipoglu, G. (eds) A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, Wiley, 2017, p. 1294 Hurufiyah artists rejected Western art concepts, and instead searched for a new visual languages that reflected their own culture and heritage. These artists successfully transformed calligraphy into a modern aesthetic, which was both contemporary and indigenous.Lindgren, A. and Ross, S., The Modernist World, Routledge, 2015, p. 495; Mavrakis, N., "The Hurufiyah Art Movement in Middle Eastern Art," McGill Journal of Middle Eastern Studies Blog, Online: https://mjmes.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/article-5/; Tuohy, A. and Masters, C., A-Z Great Modern Artists, Hachette UK, 2015, p. 56 Prior to Sadequain's work, only a few painters had experimented with the medium in Pakistan. Sadequain is a pioneer of the style, bringing calligraphy into a mainstream art form, and influencing subsequent generations of Pakistani artists.
Murals
Sadequain was a social commentator, and preferred to paint on public buildings instead of private ones that were owned by the wealthy. He did not like the idea that if he was painting for the wealthy, then his art would only be enjoyed by a small percentage, leaving out all of the public. His murals are densely filled and tightly packed with images to render adequately the lofty subject. As a master muralist some of his works adorn the halls of: The State Bank of Pakistan (100 x 12 ft) The Power House at the Mangla Dam (170 x 23 ft) Lahore Museum, Lahore Aligarh Muslim University (70 x 12 ft) Banaras Hindu University (70 x 12 ft) and Geological Institute of India (70 x 25 ft) Frere Hall Karachi Powerhouse at Abu Dhabi Punjab University Library
His monumental murals, in excess of thirty-five, adorn the halls of State Bank, Frere Hall Karachi; Lahore Museum; Punjab University; Mangla Dam; Aligarh Muslim University; Banaras Hindu University; Indian Institute of Geological Sciences; Islamic Institute in Delhi, and Abu Dhabi Power House, among others. His paintings and calligraphies in the building of the Islamic Institute in Delhi alone cover more than seven thousand square feet. Sadequain painted his earliest murals at Jinnah Hospital and PIA headquarters in the 1950s. These murals have disappeared and their fate is unknown.
In 1961 he painted a huge mural (62'X10') in the Head Office of the State Bank of Pakistan in Karachi, titled "Treasures of Time," in which he showed the intellectual advance of man from the times of Socrates to that of Iqbal and Einstein. It is a linear creation that shows a pageant of intellectuals and thinkers of the Greek era, mathematicians and chemists of the Middle East, scholars of the European Renaissance, and 20th-century laureates. This large mural has endured transportation from the State Bank to Mohatta Palace (for the exhibition The Holy Sinner), and back to State Bank and has deep scars to prove the ordeal.
Sadequain painted the ceiling of the Lahore museum entrance hall, depicting the Evolution of Mankind, and additional nine large panels of calligraphies for the Islamic Gallery. The ceiling spans approximately 100 x . The Panjab government has recently allocated money for the restoration of the mural.
Punjab University houses the mural "Quest of Knowledge" in its library. The mural appropriately depicts the academic theme commensurate with the institution of learning where it is housed. Young men and women are shown holding high the key to learning that unleashes riches in their lives. The mural is mounted high up against the ceiling of the main library and appears to be in good condition.
The mural in the Punjab Library (adjacent to Lahore Museum) is mounted in the library hall located on the main floor. All four sections of the mural have been disassembled and dismounted because of the damage to the building due to water seepage.
The ceiling of the Frere Hall, Karachi displays in bold, the words, Arz-o-Samawat (Earth and the Heavens) bears a historical significance, since it represents the last piece of work by Sadequain. He died before he could complete it.
The mural titled "Saga of Labor" by Sadequain at Mangla Dam is a tribute to the working men and women of the society. The mural hangs in the powerhouse of Mangla Dam and so far endured the harsh environmental conditions of the huge enclosure that also houses gigantic electric turbines. It was completed in six weeks, and sold for a total amount of 250,000 Rupees or $25,000 in US Dollars.
Banaras Hindu University houses one large mural.
In his lifetime there were two galleries named after him by the authorities, but they no longer exist.
Rubaiyat
Sadequain came from the small town of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, India. It was his great-grandfather, under whose tutelage Mir Taqi Mir – considered the father of Urdu poetry – developed his poetic skills at an early age. Mir Anis, the preeminent religious poet from Lucknow, was the understudy of one of his ancestors too. He witnessed his elders delve into poetry, calligraphy, and even classical music to the extent it complimented marsia khwani – the revered practice to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain in Karbala.
Starting in the last quarter of 1969, and through the first few months of 1970, Sadequain concentrated on composing, inscribing, and illustrating hundreds of rubaiyyat. In the prologue of his collection of rubaiyyat, Sadequain compared his accomplishment as an audacious confluence of global talent, the rubaiyyat of poet Omar Khayyam, transcription by the renowned calligrapher Yaqoot and illustration by the legendary painter Mani. “That of course would produce a magnificent piece of work”, he stated, “however, no matter how grand, it would still be a group show.” Sadequain reached for the ultimate one-man show, and produced a masterpiece collection of rubaiyyat, which was adjudged for first prize by the Literary Society of Pakistan. Sadequain privately published 4 books of rubaiyyat; Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain Naqqash, Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain Khattat, Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequaini, and Juzw-e-Bosida. The collection titled Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain Naqqash was an illustrated version with over two hundred drawings. The collection of rubaiyyat titled Juzw-e-Bosida, dating back to the poetry of his teen years, was printed privately in the 1980s, but the drawings of his teen years were lost or destroyed.
Speaker of truth
In a 1971 interview with Sadequain he noted " I am not a drawing room artist, but the artist of the gutter: my art is for the people" which was in response to what was happening politically with Pakistans military campaigning. The interviewer went on to ask Sadequain if they were a communist and he responded with "If Communism means that people have the right to clothe themselves, if they are able to eat and get shelter- well then I am a communist."
Best known for his calligraphies, Sadequain painted abstracts, drawings, and sketches on thousands of canvases, volumes of paper, and multitudes of other conventional and unconventional materials.
Renaissance of Islamic calligraphy 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.
Artist 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.
His works
During the 1960s he stayed in interior Sindh, in areas surrounded by desert, where nothing could grow except cactus which would break through the rugged sandy ground. The sight of the wild cactus growing in scorching heat and surviving the harshest of conditions left a lasting impression on Sadequain. He adapted this symbol to depict labour, struggle, and persistence against natural elements of resistance and triumph of hard work.
Sadequain sketched numerous drawings titled Cobweb Series, Crow Series, Christ Series, Hope Series, and Sun Series during the sixties, which were commentaries on prevailing social and cultural conditions. Sadequain saw cobwebs engulfing our society rendering it speechless and motionless. The Crow Series projected men as timid worshippers of scarecrows because they have lost self-respect and spirituality. Crows however are not intimidated and gang up on humanity in flocks and pick on lifeless humans. In the Christ Series Sadequain showed the crime being committed in front of the Christ while he was still alive on the Cross.