Syed Ahmed Sadequain Naqvi The Influential South Asian Artist rise to fame began in 1955 when he exhibited his works at the residence of Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who was a patron of the arts. He received important governmental commissions for municipal murals and held numerous solo exhibitions.
Sadequain’s encounters with cacti in Gadani in 1957 became a key theme and metaphor in his work, representing violence, man’s struggle against hardship, and nature’s victory over adversity.
He won the Pakistan National prize for Painting in 1960 and was invited to Paris by the French Committee of the International Association of Plastic Arts. He achieved international critical acclaim in the early 1960s, winning the laureate winner of the Paris Biennial’s ‘Artist under 35′ category in 1961. He held numerous solo-exhibitions throughout Europe and the USA and was commissioned to illustrate a new edition of Albert Camus’ novel L’Etranger, published in 1966.
Sadequain returned to Pakistan in 1967, where his popularity soared, and he concerned himself mainly with calligraphy and state-funded murals. He remains one of the most influential and important South Asian artists of the 20th century.
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