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

Murals: Introduced monumental murals to the visual vocabulary of the country. Painted more than 45 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 any artist of the region. Most murals were donated to public institutions. Several have been destroyed.

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

Le Monde et La Vie, Paris, France

April 1964

“The multiplicity of Sadequain’s gifts is reminiscent of Picasso.”

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

Khaleej Times, UAE

June 20, 1980

Renaissance of Islamic Calligraphy. A mystic artist from Pakistan who has become a legend in his own time. The remarkable story of Sadequain, who did not seek but was endowed with divine inspiration.

Drawings: In his book IMAGE and IDENTITY, Dr. Akbar Naqvi wrote, “If Sadequain had done nothing but his drawings, he would still be considered one the innovators of modern art in the country.”

Poetry: Sadequain wrote thousands of rubaiyyat (quatrains) and illustrated many of them in his four volumes of Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain. The confluence of three genres — composition, inscription and illustration of rubaiyyat — is a singularly unique creation in Urdu literature. His rubaiyyat are a mirror to the society and expose the true face of hypocrisy.

Philanthropist: Sadequain considered it repugnant to sell his work and gave away much of it, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, if sold, to individuals and institutions. A large amount of his work was misappropriated.