KARACHI, Jan 19: The largest-attended and longest-running exhibition in the history of Pakistani art — titled The Holy Sinner: Sadequain — came to an end at the Mohatta Palace Museum on Sunday night.
The exhibition, featuring more than 200 non-calligraphic works of the Amroha-born artist, got under way in the 16 rooms of the Mohatta Palace Museum on Feb 28, 2002. The organizers of the exhibition said that more than 85,000 art lovers, as well as 160 schools, had come to see the works of Sadequain whose commercial worth, at a low estimate, was around Rs500 million. They said they had to extend the exhibition for one more week on overwhelming public demand during which more than 10,000 people had visited the Mohatta Palace Museum. Salima Hashmi and Hameed Haroon were the co-curators of the exhibition.
They said a large-sized catalogue on Sadequain, containing more than 600 pages and articles by 35 writers, would be out within a month. They said it would be the definitive work on the life and art of Sadequain, who had been a wholly self-taught artist. The Mohatta Palace Museum was publishing the catalogue in partnership with Unilever Pakistan, they added.
The title of Sadequain’s exhibition at the Mohatta Palace Museum was borrowed from the novel of German Nobel Prize-winning writer, Thomas Mann, whose book is about a great sinner who ends up becoming a pope.
Hence the title: “The Holy Sinner.” The organizers explained that the titled aptly described Sadequain who had been what was referred to as a Malamati sufi.
They said the exhibition had been instrumental in bringing to the fore the non-calligra-phic paintings of Sadequain, who had previously been popular only for his calligraphic works.
“Sadequain employed a technique that is known as biomorphic tughras in technical parlance. It consists in using calligraphic strokes to represent human forms,” they said.
The organizers pointed out that Sadequain’s fascination with cacti had begun in Gaddani, where he had come as a young man in the 1950s to recuperate.
“In the cactus, Sadequain sees men and words, such as Allah. The rest of his life he painted cacti and yet he painted life-forms.”
The organizers said the work on the exhibition had been set into motion by Begum Aamna Majeed Malik who had graciously loaned 14 magnificent canvasses by Sadequain.
The rest of the works had been lent by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, State Bank of Pakistan, Karachi Press Club, Collection Services Club and 25 private collectors, they said.
The organizers said that in addition to a documentary on Sadequain made by Mirza Jami, the Mohatta Palace Museum would also prepare six videos. They said that in 2005 an exhibition of 120 ‘Dark Lady’ paintings by Sadequain would also be organized by the museum.
They recalled that a lecture on Sadequain had also been organized by the Jinnah Society at which distinguished art critics had spoken about various aspects of Sadequain’s art.