Leonardo

Leonardo, Vol. 7, pp. 345-347. Pergamon Press 1974. Printed in Great Britain ON MY WORK AS A PAINTER IN PAKISTAN S. M. Sadequain* with W. K. Bhatty** Pakistan is a land of extremes-widespread illiteracy and advanced education, depressing poverty and fabulous wealth. The wealthy are irresponsive to the sufferings of the poor. People, generally, are fond of poetry, which tends to stress a pessimistic outlook on life. The Muslim religion (Pakistan is a theocratic state) plays a strong role in the life of the people. To communicate ideas to members of such a population, one must resort to the use of different media. Apart from making paintings and drawing caricatures, 1write poetry in Urdu and also texts on philosophical and social questions [I]. Metaphysics and mysticism attract me strongly. My choice of surface to paint on is not limited by temerity, for I have used paper, canvas, hardboard , Rexine, wood, leather and metal plates. I will use any kind of paint I can get my hands on. I am not at all persnickety about working conditions . During the 1971 Indo-Pakistan armed conflict ,whenLahorewasblacked out against air raids,[ kept onworkingbycandlelight in a smalldingyroom. Any empty surface is a challenge to me and when one is before me, inquietude and insomnia seize me until I cover it. In order to reduce body discomforts during painting, I adopt various yogic positions quite unconsciously. 1am especially attracted by large surfaces. My 20 x 170ft. mural on the outer wall of the power house of Pakistan’s Mangla Dam, called ‘Saga of Labour’, has as its theme the conquest of nature by mankind, from earliest times, and to me it symbolizes a temple dedicated to the future of an industrially developing country. I completed the mural in six weeks and received 250,000 rupees ($25,000) for it-the highest sum so far paid in Pakistan for an art work. The mural is on concrete and was executed with oil paints on a primed base. Recently, I completed a 30 x 90 ft mural for the ceiling of the entrance hall of the Lahore Museum. Its title is ‘Man and the Mysterious Space’. It is executed in oil on 48 canvas panels. * Artist living at Sebtain Manzil, North Nazimabad, Karachi, Pakistan. ** Historian and archaeologist living at 27-D, Block 6, P.E.C.H.S., Karachi - 29, Pakistan. (Received 12 Nov. 1973.) The reason I prefer to paint murals for public buildings stems from my reluctance to make pictures for sale to wealthy individuals who do not permit them to be seen by those who might be interested in them. I have now made a self-imposed embargo on the sale of new paintings I- make with the intention of showing them to the public in my own museum, which I plan to have built. When I started painting, I chose the pretty things of life for my subjects and expressed them in bright colours, but now my subjects are melancholy ones in dark colours of blue, black and grey, with dots and patches, here and there, of white. At Gadani, a coastal resort near Karachi, I was impressed by a variety of cacti growing in abundance in the drab desert. While contemplating these thorny plants, they assumed for me the shapes of human beings [2] and of the skylines of cities. I made a series of paintings in which the cacti were depicted in various ways (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. ‘RESURRECTION’, Oil on canvas; 30 x 38 in., 1969. 345 346 S. M. Sacleqirairl arid W.K. Bhatty Fig. 2. ‘A MODEL’, Oil oti hardboard, 30 x 38 in.. 1969. With a deep sense of pain I have observed the sharp contrast between the quality of life of the majority of the people in Europe and of those in Pakistan. Especially, I feel sorry for the ineffectual role of the intellectuals, or rather pseudo-intellectuals , in Pakistan, who have the mentality of mandarins (Fig. 2). This reaction led me to a phase of social protest in my work. I painted young men idle enough to let crows build nests on their heads, lay eggs and hatch them. I depicted beautiful young...