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Lot 62*
Sadequain (Pakistani, 1930-1987)Crucifix
Amended
25 October 2021, 10:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£30,000 - £50,000
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Sadequain (Pakistani, 1930-1987)
Crucifix signed and dated 7/6/65 lower right.
oil on canvas
110.7 x 41.9cm (43 9/16 x 16 1/2in).
oil on canvas
110.7 x 41.9cm (43 9/16 x 16 1/2in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Pakistani Collection: presented by the artist to his friend M.A Sarwar in 1969.
Private Pakistani Collection: acquired by the owner from the grandson of M.A Sarwar, Mr Omar Sarwar in 2021.
Note: This work has been authenticated by Salima Hashmi.
Born in Amroha, Uttar Pradesh in 1930, into an educated Shia family, Syed Ahmed Sadequain Naqqash studied at the University of Agra. Having completed his education, he spent a few years working at the All-India Radio in Delhi and as a calligrapher copyist in Karachi. After the Partition of India in 1947, he spent a year with Radio Pakistan, before devoting himself to art.
In the early 1960's, Sadequain was exploring a new artistic language through the depiction of cacti. The cactus paintings were born in 1958 when Sadequain's retreat to the seashore of Gadani, for convalescence from illness, resulted in a resolute change in his artistic output. It was here, in the immense solitude of his surroundings that these writhing forms began to speak to the artist as otherworldly symbols of man's struggle against hardship and nature's inevitable victory over adversity. Sadequain says of his experience in Gadani "I felt myself becoming part of the cactus and the cactus becoming part of me." (Sadequain: The Holy Sinner, Karachi, Pakistan, 2003, p.9)
The present cross-hatched lot from his 1969 Crucifixion series is an illustration of one such work, which he branded Mystic Figurations and is characteristic of his sixties style. The subject is an anthropomorphised cactus only superficially concealing its angst filled human shape. The detached head is supressed under the weight of both the body and golden sun, and yet appears resilient, perhaps symbolising the artists' own resilience despite unstable health.
During a career spanning multiple decades, he garnered great acclaim, both during and after his lifetime. He held numerous solo exhibitions, two of which include the exhibition at the Commonwealth Institute Galleries in London, and at Galerie Lambert in Paris. He was the recipient of the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz award by the Government of Pakistan in 1960, the Biennale de Paris award by the Government of France in 1961 and the Cultural Award by the Government of Australia in 1975 to name a few. Most recently, he was commemorated by the Pakistan Post in 2006, when they issued a Rs. 40 sheetlet to posthumously honour 10 Pakistani Painters.
For another Sadequain from the Crucifixion series previously sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Art of Pakistan, 24th May 2017, Lot 18.
Saleroom notices
Please note that the date of this work is 7/6/1965.