Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi often referred to as Sadequain Naqqash, was a Pakistani artist and poet best known for his skills as a calligrapher and a painter. He was born on 30 June 1930 in Amroha. He got his initial education from his ancestral school, Imam-ul-Madaris in Amroha. From his early age he demonstrated signs of artistic talent. He was only eleven when he manually inscribed and duplicated entire textbook of geography. In his childhood when World War II was going on he painted world map on walls tracking troops movements.
Sadequain graduated in Art History and Geography from Agra University in 1948 and migrated to Pakistan.
He painted more than 15,000 pieces consisting of gigantic murals, intriguing paintings, innovative calligraphies, exquisite drawings, and composed thousands of introspective quatrains.
Observing Sadequain’s remarkable colour scheme in action is astounding. In his paintings, Sadequain employed a great deal of symbolism in the most poetic Indo-Persian style. He produced several painting series, each containing a variety of distinctive artistic expressions. Most of his collection of work is divided into several series, including the Cactus Series, Mystic Figurations Series, Sun Series, Cobweb Series, Crow and Scarecrow Series, House of Cards Series, Sar-ba-Kuf Series, and Crucifixion Series, to name a few. His massive paintings exhibit his unparalleled talent, and his calligraphic works, which featured him in a life-size stance, contributed to the growth of Pakistani calligraphic art.
The world acknowledges his work and there is no doubt he himself was an academy of art. Lauding Sadequain’s art work a French Newspaper in 1964 commented, “The multiplicity of Sadequain’s gifts is reminiscent of Picasso.”
There were a number of exhibitions held all around world exhibiting Sadequain artifacts. In year 1978 he published a book of poetry with illustration.
Sadequain also wrote thousands of rubaiyyat (quatrains) and illustrated many of them in his four volumes of Rubaiyyat-e-Sadequain. He died on February 10, 1987 and was buried at Sakhi Hasan Graveyard in Karachi.
He received the following Awards;
- 1960 – Government of Pakistan – Tamgha-e-Imtiaz
- 1961 – Government of France – Biennale de Paris Award
- 1962 – President of Pakistan – Pride of Performance Award
- 1975 – Government of Australia – “Cultural Award”
- 1980 – Government of Pakistan – Sitara-e-Imtiaz.
- 2000 – Sadequain Institute of Arts & Information Technology established
- 2021 – Government of Pakistan – Posthumous Nishan-i-Imtiaz