PRESS RELEASE EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN, WASHINGTON DC
August 14, 2007
Exhibition of Paintings and Calligraphy by Sadequain
An exhibition of paintings, calligraphy and sketches by the celebrated Pakistani artist, Sadequain, was held in the Embassy of Pakistan from 10 to 12 August 2007. The exhibition was part of the series of events organized by the Embassy to commemorate the 60 th anniversary of the independence of Pakistan .
The Washington Diplomat
The Washington Diplomat
By Gail Scott
August 14, 2007
Pakistan’s Sadequain: Reminiscent of Picasso
In celebration of Pakistan’s 60th anniversary of independence, Ambassador Mahmud Ali Durrani and his wife Fatima hosted an exhibit of paintings and calligraphy by their country’s most famous artist, Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi (1930-87). Popularly known as “Sadequain,” he is regarded as one of the finest painters and calligraphers that Pakistan has ever produced.
Daily Times September 6, 2007
Rs 1.5m for Sadequain’s mural
LAHORE: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi on Wednesday approved a supplementary grant of Rs 1.5 million for the restoration of Sadequain’s mural as part of the upgrading of the Lahore Museum. From the paintings in the museum, is an exquisite large masterpiece, attributed to Sadequain. The painting is fixed at the ceiling of the museum’s entrance hall, spanning almost its entire length. The painting, known as Sadequain’s mural, has deteriorated over the years and is in immediate need of restoration and preservation. Sadequain was born in Amroha in 1930 and died in Karachi in 1987. He designed the painting while working for the Lahore Museum on August 3, 1973. The painting covers 44 panels assembled together to form one giant canvas (29 x 7.8 meters). Each panel is oil on canvas, stretched on wooden frames, which in turn, are screwed onto a wooden framework fixed to the ceiling.
The News – September 27, 2007
State Bank to house monetary museum By Aisha Masood
9/27/2007 Karachi
The State Bank Annex will soon house the first ever monetary museum in Pakistan, displaying coins, stamps, currencies and the history of the country in its galleries.
The old heritage building boasts old-school architecture and is in its original condition. The department of museum and art gallery, set up barely a year ago, has taken the charge of the renovation that is currently in progress. “The major work includes the erection of panels and galleries on the ground floor and also the renovation of the mezzanine floor,” disclosed the Director of the department, Asma Ibrahim.
Friday Times – October, 2007
Sadequain 20 years later
Khalid Hasan
Sadequain in Amroha, India
It is 20 years this year since Sadequain’s death.
He would have been 77. When he died at the age of 57 (of
what can only be called too much living), it was not his
death that was surprising but how he had lived so long,
given the white-hot intensity with which he lived and
painted, wrote and loved. He burned his candle at both
ends, and had there been a third end, he would have burned
it from that end too.
Himalmag – October, 2007
From HIMALMAG, OCT. 2007
One of Pakistan’s unique artistic masterpieces is in dire need of some help. And if it must come from across the Wagah border, so be it.
By: Rinku Dutta
The roof of the Lahore Museum’s central hall
When you walk into the enormous central hall of the Lahore Museum, your eye is quickly drawn to the two rows of miniature paintings displayed along the walls on either side. Women on horseback playing polo; Radha and Krishna consorting under a mango tree. You approach the glass cases to observe the minute details of individual strands of hair, of eyelashes, of fingernails. Perchance, you look up.
And you are transposed. Telescoped from the micro to the macro! There, 11 meters in the air are the sparkling stars, the whirling planets, and the spiraling galaxies, all-beaming directly at you. A viewer may not be able to immediately recognize the intricate Kufic calligraphy, the use of the letter noon as a design element, but the dynamism of the geometric shapes, the bold and energetic lines, the feverish cross-hatching, will intrigue and engage any imagination. This is a mammoth, 29×7.8-metre oil painting by the famed Pakistani artist Sadequain, rendered in a genre called ‘calligraphic cubism’, spanning the entire ceiling of the entrance hall. If your vision is sharp and you know Urdu, you will read the line of a poem by Mohammad Iqbal painted on one panel: Sitaaro’n ke aage jaha’n aur bhi hai – Beyond the stars there are still other worlds.