Sadequain
(1930–1987), Pakistani artist. Sadequain's paintings, in media ranging from oils to felt markers, are evidence of his skillful draftsmanship and imaginative visual vocabulary. Sadequain was born in Amroha, India, to a family of Qu'ran scribes, and moved to Karachi, Pakistan, in the early 1950s.
The civic activism that was a hallmark of Sadequain's art arose during his early experience of painting nationalistic, anti-British slogans in Delhi on the eve of the Indian partition. His politically charged canvases found a responsive audience among 1960s intelligentsia, both in Pakistan and abroad.
Sadequain's personal iconography was a complex merging of Hindu and Muslim ideology, using Eastern and Western artistic traditions, such as figurative art and calligraphy. His human figures, often self-portraits, are rendered abstractly as thorny cacti. Sadequain also wrote poetry and illustrated poems of reformist Pakistani thinkers like Faiz Ahmad Faiz (1911–1984).
His large-scale murals are in a socialist vein, such as the Saga of Labor (1967), installed at the Mangla Dam power plant, which depicts human struggle. His last, incomplete project was a series of murals inside Frere Hall in Karachi, where he died.
Further Reading
Sirhandi, Marcella Nesom. (1992) Contemporary Painting in Pakistan. Lahore, Pakistan: Ferozsons.
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