ISLAMABAD: Two new books about the iconic artist Sadequain were launched in November 2010 at Gallery 6, in collaboration with the Sadequain Foundation, California, USA. One book depicted the collection of calligraphies, ‘The Legend of Sadequain – Renaissance of Calligraphic Art in Pakistan’, which presented biographical notes and a collection of over 160 calligraphic paintings of the legendary artist. The second book ‘Mystic Expressions by Sadequain – an odyssey to exaltation with Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz and Sadequain’ had illustrations, or one could even call them interpretations, of poetry of these famous poets by Sadequain.

These books are two of the five books printed by the Sadequain Foundation in USA to date. At that time, a limited number of these books were imported from USA to sell in Pakistan. Even though their quality was not very good, they received tremendous response as almost all copies were sold on the launching day. This highly encouraged the Sadequain Foundation to print more books on Sadequain in Pakistan.

The first book that has been printed by the Foundation is ‘Mystic Expressions by Sadequain – an odyssey to exaltation with Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz and Sadequain’. The illustrations of Ghalib were done in 1968, of Faiz during the 1970s and 80s and of Iqbal during the 1980s. Sadequain was deeply interested in the issues that have challenged the best minds of the human race - the questions about the mysteries of the universe, meaning of life on our planet and beyond, role of human beings in the universe, freedom and self determination, survival and progress, and the fine line between reason and emotion - even in his own poetry he deals with such issues.

The book ‘Mystic Expression’ is a high quality coffee table presentation with hard cover and is of much larger size than the American print. The book also has additional features, such as the book has at its center fold, a 48 inch poster size spread of the ceiling mural at the Lahore Museum. This has never been published before. The ceiling mural measures a staggering 95 x 30 feet. Currently the mural is under repair and a subject of much debate in the media. Also this Pakistani print contains Sadequain’s 56 feet wide and 9 feet tall mural illustration of poetry of Iqbal, which has not been seen before by public and never before published in media.

The book spreads over 223 pages, with high quality all colour illustrations and is a collector’s item. The book was put on sale at gallery 6, Islamabad, yesterday (Sunday 24 July). The gallery is working as a partner of the Sadequain Foundation USA in promoting its aims and objectives, and has offered a 5% discount on the book to its regular visitors till 27 July. It is worth noting that only 500 limited edition copies have been printed for worldwide sale and only 50 copies have been allocated for sale in Islamabad.Daily Times.