Khalid Iqbal

Khalid Iqbal was a Pakistani painter, art teacher, and professor emeritus. He was known for his landscape paintings as well as his natural forms paintings and portraits of Punjab, Pakistan. He was born on 23 June 1929 in British India (in modern-day Simla, India). He attended St Joseph's Academy, Dehradun where he obtained his O levels education. In 1949, he obtained bachelor's degree from Forman Christian College, and diploma in French in 1952 from the Oriental College. He took art classes in the evening at the Mayo School of Arts (now known as the National College of Arts). He later worked as an art teacher at Aitchison College from 1949 to 1952, and subsequently went to England and attended Slade School of Fine Art to study fine arts from 1952 to 1955. He returned to Pakistan in 1962 and rejoined the faculty of the Punjab University, Lahore and taught there until 1964. He was known to his friends as a friendly, thoroughly professional and encouraging teacher. He also taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore for over two decades. He was known for his figurative nudes and impressionist landscapes. He was inspired by the culture and history of Pakistan and the subcontinent. He was also influenced by the European masters such as Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. He was awarded the Quaid-e-Azam Award for Painting in 1979 and the Pride of Performance Award by the President of Pakistan in 1980. He founded and chaired the biennial International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease from 1988 to 2008. In 2007, the Alzheimer’s Association, U.S.A. established a Khalid Iqbal Life Time Achievement Award for Alzheimer’s Disease Research, which is given out annually at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD) to a senior established Alzheimer disease researcher. He died on 19 June 2014 in Lahore, Pakistan. He was one of the most popular and respected artists of Pakistan.