Background:

Sadequain (1930 – 1987) received international acclaim during the early 1960s, when he was recognized as the “Laureate Binnale de Paris” in 1961, and also chosen to illustrate the novel, titled The Stranger, written by Nobel Laureate Albert Camus in 1964. He received widely positive coverage in the media in Europe and the USA and he was compared to Picasso in the French press when living in Paris during the 1960s. Later, during 1974 and 1975, Sadequain had highly successful exhibition tours of the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Sadequain is practically a household name in his native Pakistan, but since his last exhibition tours, he has become virtually unknown in the Western world.

 Overview:

 Legendary Artist and Thinker: Painted more than 15,000 pieces consisting of murals, paintings, calligraphies, drawings, and composed thousands of quatrains.

• Murals: Introduced monumental murals to the visual vocabulary of the country. Painted more than 45 gigantic murals, most of which are now housed in Pakistan, India, the Middle East, Europe, and North America. These murals represent an unparalleled body of artistic genius by an artist of the region. Most murals were given as gifts to public institutions. Many have been destroyed.

• Paintings: Prodigiously prolific, his palette included thousands of figurative works embodying universal subjects and Eastern forms. Introduced Pakistan to the international art forums.

• Calligraphy: Re-defined the script of calligraphic art and responsible for the renaissance of painterly calligraphy in Pakistan.

• Drawings: According to Dr. Naqvi, a recognized art critic, “If Sadequain had done nothing but his drawings, he would still be considered the greatest artist of the country.”

• Poetry: Sadequain wrote thousands of quatrains (four-liners) and illustrated many of them in his four volumes of Rubaiyyat. The confluence of three genres — composition, inscription and illustration of quatrains — is a singularly unique creation in Urdu literature.

• Philanthropist: Sadequain gave away most of his work, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, if sold, to individuals and institutions.

 Alarming Situation:

• Three art galleries were established in Sadequain’s name in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, when he was alive. After he passed away, the contents of his galleries, including his personal belongings, were removed without permission of Sadequain’s family. The locations of Sadequain’s artwork and personal property are now unaccounted for.

• Many of Sadequain’s murals are in a state of dis-repair and several have gone missing.

• Paintings are locked in private homes and are decaying.

• Many paintings have been stolen and no effort is made for their recovery.

• Fakes abound and are selling with impunity.

• Many recipients of Sadequain’s gifts have been cashing in by selling his artworks in their possession. Because Sadequain did not sell his own artwork, the SADEQUAIN Foundation considers such sales disrespectful to the spirit of Sadequain’s benevolence.

SADEQUAIN Foundation’s Goals:

• Discover: Research and locate Sadequain’s artwork at institutions and in private collections.

• Preserve: Catalog Sadequain’s artwork.

• Restore: Identify artwork in state of dis-repair and arrange for restoration.

• Promote: Introduce Sadequain’s art to museums, universities and other institutions outside of Pakistan.

• Educate: Establish teaching curriculum on Sadequain’s art at recognized educational institutes.

Conclusion:

• There is much work to be done for the international exploitation of Sadequain’s works that will be essential for Sadequain’s life, words and works to bring him to global attention and recognition.

• A comprehensive Catalogue Raisonné will be a true official reference for the artist and it will bring prestige to his works and elevate his status dramatically in the West.

• Set up a dedicated database to catalog Sadequain’s artwork that will facilitate cross-referencing his work to eliminate fakes and avoid bogus artworks.

• A sustained effort is required to actively collaborate with concerned entities on authentication, publication and common communication.

• Raise awareness amongst the collectors, as they are vital for this project, and apply the standard procedures used in similar campaigns by many important modern artists such as Monet, Chagall, and others.

• Establish direct contact with individual collectors and institutions needed to have the artworks loaned for exhibitions.

• Funding required for publication of a series of catalogs and books on Sadequain.

About SADEQUAIN Foundation:

The SADEQUAIN Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to discover, preserve, and promote the art of Sadequain. In pursuance of its goals, the Foundation has executed exhaustive research to locate hundred’s of pieces of Sadequain’s artwork in places as far flung as Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Middle East, Austria, Switzerland, France, England, USA, Canada, and more. The Foundation is poised to publish a 12 volume catalog of Sadequain’s work, comprising of over 1,000 pages of text and over 1,800 selective images, it holds regular exhibitions of Sadequain’s works, and conducts seminars at museums and universities to raise awareness about Sadequain’s prodigious palette. The Foundation supports research on Sadequain’s life and work, and provides authentication with history, analyses, and provenance.