Pride Of Pakistan - - World Renown Aviation Artist: Group Captain Syed Masood Akhtar Hussaini

Group Captain Syed Masood Akhtar Hussaini is a gifted military aviation artist of the Pakistan Air Force. Born in January 1951, the officer joined PAF College, Sargodha in 1963 and was commissioned in March 1971 from the Air Force Academy at Risalpur in the General Duties (Pilot) Branch. In 1973, the officer qualified as an Air Defence Weapons Controller, a capacity in which he continues to serve in the PAF. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Avionics.



Having taken up aviation painting as a hobby during his pre-cadet days at Sargodha, the artist has continued his close observation and accurate depiction of PAF activities for over 30 years.



An Artist Fellow of the American Society of Aviation Artists, he is a realist in the tradition of Keith Ferris (USA), Frank Wootton (UK) and Paul Langeley (France), and has won international acclaim and a place of prominence amongst the leading aviation artists of the world. In this highly specialized field, he can rightly claim to be the first world class aviation artist in South Asia.


A newspaper 'The Daily Progress' of Virginia (USA) paid rich tributes to Hussaini and termed him as "The oil and canvas chronicler of Pakistan's military victories". On the 40th anniversary of the PAF, the Government of Pakistan issued ten commemorative postage stamps all bearing the miniaturized prints of Hussaini's aviation paintings.


Glimpses of his work are being presented here and his work will be covered in detail in the next few articles.




Source: Al-Nasir.Com

Abdul Rahim Nagori - - Painter Known For His Socio-political Themes

Born in 1939, and having passion for art since his childhood done his B.A. (Hon), Fine Arts (Painting), M.A. Fine Arts (Painting) from University of the Punjab, Lahore during 1961 to 1965.

Professor A.R. Nagori pioneered Socio-Political Art in Pakistan. Solo exhibitions since 1958. Paintings sold, auctioned & selected at various international art galleries, auction houses and museums including Asia House, Sotheby's, Bonham and Asia Pacific Museum, Pasadena, USA.

Professor Nagori established Fina Arts Department of Sindh University in 1970 and remained head of department for many years.

Nagori is a scholastic man, well-versed in eastern history and philosophy. A veteran of art exhibitions, his work resonates with symbols that refer to ancients myths and legends. He Introduced to articulate protest against injustice and cruelty of man to his fellow beings, tempered with a mood of sardonic observation. Nagori's art is directed towards raising serious socio-political issues, while retaining pictorial and aesthetic values.







As the first and most radical socio-political artist in Pakistan, Nagori took a Masters in Fine Art from Department of Fine Arts of University of Punjab in 1965. There he trained as muralist; but
from 1980s, for economic reasons, he painted on small scaled canvases expressing in colours of brilliant vibrancy personal outrage at society and the world around him.

Though never intended to please or decorate walls, the beatuy of sensual textures and adept simplification of form were as inherent a factor in Nagori's work as his uncompromising statements rich with meanings. His exhibitions at the Indus Galleries in 1980 made history in art.





In 1986, Nagori 'shook the conscience of the nation' with his portrayal of the hardships suffered by the country's rural population.



In 1988, he evolved new symbols of alphabet based on shocking events; guns, heroin, crime and robberies.




In Nagori's work, viewer finds laughter and tears; his biting wit was irresistible as was the sincerity of his feelings for the people without recourse. In a mellow mood he painted idyllic memories of his children in their early years, and spoke of his student life in Lahore.

Trained by mentors who had no interest in commercial aspects of art, he maintains lasting respect for Anna Molka Ahmed, Khalid Iqbal and Shakir Ali. Recalling an early exhibition in Lahore, when someone commiserated on the lack of sales, he related: "It was extremely successful, Moyene Najmi bought a painting".

Today, he has emerged from the yellow and the ochre, only to plunge into the blue and the red. His blue is agonizingly serene, and his red tantalizingly dramatic. His canvases continue to be as disturbing as ever.

With a touch of Modigliani and a whiff from Ajanta Caves, Nagori follows Al-Ghazali, who in contradistinction to the Greeks' perception of sensual beauty, holds that a sixth sense, a sort of super sense, is responsible for the appreciation of beauty. Every great painter, every great artist and every lover of beauty possesses this sixth sense in its fullest degree which is the source not only of creation, but also of appreciation..."

"...His blue dips its fingers into green and his red burrows its head under mystery and suspense and drama, Nagori is about to discover himself, or maybe, discover the futility of his spiritual voyage."

Sadqain: A Legendary Artist And Calligrapher - - Untraditional, Self-made And Self-taught Artist

SADQAIN (1930-1986) Sadeqain was an untraditional and self-made, self-taught painter and calligrapher. His forte is his creation of mysterious - almost mystic - environment, which he achieves with his bold, uninhibited use of media, colors and lines.



Sadqain was a prolific artist; he experimented with portraits, sketches, caricatures, book titles and did a lot of Koranic calligraphy, but he seems to be at his best while depicting Ghalib. Whether it is due to his extreme devotion to Ghalib, or his profound interest in Urdu poetry (Sadeqain himself was a fine Urdu poet and published two poetry collections), he seems to be at his artistic best while painting Ghalib.




According to Aslam Kamal, "They say that Deewan e Ghalib is a Revelation. Don't know whether it's true but Sadeqain's work on Ghalib is sort of a stamp of approval to this belief".



A rare visionary, Sadqain was able to bridge the gulf between the disparate groups in society. At the age of 31 his work won recognition at the 1961 Paris Biennial. Sadqain had a prolific career and much of his work is displayed in public places. Like Diego Rivera, he celebrated the role of the proletariat. His early mural, based on the dignity of labour is housed in the Mangla dam, near Islamabad. Later he painted a mammoth ceiling for The Lahore Museum based on poet Iqbal’s verses evoking the spirit of man to triumph over odds. While working on his second ceiling at the Freer Hall in Karachi, the painter took ill and died leaving the work incomplete. During his life Sadequain became a cult figure with a large following from all walks of life.



Elongated human forms with bleeding pen-like fingers and nest-shaped head were central to his imagery. In the 70s he got nation-wide fame for his rendering of Quranic verses. Sadequain was one of the few artists who continuously received State support and was equally admired by the people. The very work that gave him a large following did not get critical acclaim. Despite the divided opinion, his influential position in art history cannot be denied. He came from a long line of master calligraphers and was perhaps ideally suited to bridge the gap between modernity and tradition. The content of his work has wider appeal, the early works addressed social evils and in the later decades Sadequain used the unifying spirit of calligraphy to appeal to the masses, who came in large numbers to see his exhibitions.

Ismail Gulgee - - An Era of Art and Islammic Calligraphy in Pakistan

Ismail Gulgee (October 25, 1926 – December 14, 2007) Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (twice), Hilal-e-Imtiaz, was an award-winning, globally famous Pakistani artist born in Peshawar. He was a qualified engineer in the U.S. and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family. From about 1960 on, he was noted as an abstract painter influenced by the tradition of Islamic calligraphy and by the American "action painting" idiom.

Initially, he went to Aligarh University to study civil engineering before heading off to USA for continuing his higher education. According to artnet.com, Gulgee started to paint while acquiring his training as an engineer in the United States at Columbia University and then Harvard. His first exhibition was in 1950.



Gulgee was a gifted and consummately skilled naturalistic portrait painter who had enjoyed (according to Partha Mitter) "lavish state support" and plenty of elite commissions in this capacity. Nevertheless, he was perhaps best known worldwide for his abstract work, which was inspired by Islamic calligraphy and was also influenced by the "action painting" movement of the 1950s and 1960s (Mitter notes that Elaine Hamilton was a strong influence in this direction). This is perhaps a natural enough stylistic combination, since in both Islamic calligraphy and action painting a high value is placed on the unity and energy of gestural flow. As with the works of other action painters or abstract expressionists, Gulgee's canvases were often quite large. He was also known for using materials such as mirror glass and gold or silver leaf in his oil paintings, so that they were in fact mixed media pieces.


According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see external links): "Gulgee's calligraphy paintings are abstract and gestural interpretations of Arabic and Urdu letters. His sweeping layers of paint explore the formal qualities of oil paint while they make references to Islamic design elements." [1]

Beginning in the 1960s (if not earlier), Gulgee also created sculptures, including bronze pieces that were (like so many of his paintings) calligraphic in form and inspiration, and sometimes specifically based on verses from the Quran [source:artnet.com].

His paintings were bright and full of color, but the paint was put on with great sensitivity, and paintings vibrate with intense feeling. Areas sing with luminous, thin color; thick blobs of paint pulsate with fiberglass tears, the brush swirls strong and free. The total effect used to be very free, yet considered and well thought out. They work enormously well, because it was all orchestrated with great care and concentration.

His son Amin Gulgee is also a famous artist.