Dear All, 

Sadequain ranks as one the subcontinent’s greatest artists. A poet, calligrapher, painter and muralist; his thought and his work were deeply rooted in the illustrative and poetic traditions of his land and culture. Yet his work was also fiercely original. Although a fair amount has been written about Sadequain’s work, a new book gives invaluable insights into the thought and rare talent of the artist.

Sadequain: Artist and Poet is a memoir written by the artist’s first cousin Saiyid Ali Naqvi. The two were almost the same age, lived in the same house and grew up together in Amroha. Their lives remained inextricably linked even after their professional choices took them in different directions. In this book the author shares his account and knowledge of the work of the man he calls “poet, artist, brother and friend.” It is a fascinating insight into the development and creative genius of the artist.

I am still in the process of reading this book and am thoroughly enjoying it for its intelligence and breadth of knowledge. This book provides many insights into Sadequain’s life but this is due not just to the straight biographical detail it gives, but also because of the intellectual context it provides. The author recounts and outlines concepts and philosophies that were influential in the early lives of both men but he does so without affectation, pretension or academic jargon. What comes through strongly though is the excitement that two youngsters felt at all the possibilities of intellectual exploration - both artistic and scientific - which the twentieth century gave them.

In this memoir we learn that Sadequain was always Sadequain; a man for whom artistic expression was a compulsion and an impulse and the single most important thing in life. In his early years, he was the child who could write the Urdu alphabet before he actually learned to read, a graphic ability that he explained in his 1978 publication Juzw-i-boseeda, “Perceiving the word as a figure I could make a picture of it on the takhti.” We are told how he “could reproduce text books before he could read them” and how he “chose to make a copy of his English textbook instead of buying it” and how in Class 7 he “duplicated by hand the entire geography text book”.

He was the child who kept drawing on the walls of the family house. The author recounts how after doing what he calls ‘a nascent mural’, Sadeqauin was scolded by infuriated elders and the boys had to wash the drawings off the wall. This didn’t stop the young Sadequain however. He kept using the walls for drawing till eventually the elders gave up on scolding.

The account of the artist’s early years is marvellous and written in a beautifully evocative manner. Apart from the fact that the Amroha surroundings are so vividly described, you get a real sense of the talent and inclination of young Sadequain and a better understanding of his graphic sensibility and his mastery of the line. You also understand that his poetic expression is the image made into words and his drawing is words made into image and that both are equally important to him.

Another fact that makes this book such a valuable addition to the art history of the subcontinent is its being so very user friendly. It is a light and well produced volume with a host of thoughtfully captioned pictures which do not dominate but are included (in a small size) essentially for textual reference. The selection of pictures is excellent because it is so varied and includes works from many different periods of Sadequain’s career. It also includes many lesser known works and rare photographs.

Saiyid Ali Naqvi’s book has, reportedly, been added to the collection of a number of institutions and colleges in Pakistan. I suggest that people — especially young people — read it because it is not just a memoir of a great artist, it is also a reminder of a bygone age when despite the existence of deep-rooted traditions, intellectual exploration was encouraged and enjoyed and philosophy, poetry, science, logic, geography and art were all part of the same search for meaning.

Best wishes,

Umber Khairi