Afsar Madad Naqvi

Afsar Madad Naqvi was a master Pakistani sculptor and painter. He was a founder member of the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts Karachi. He was born in 1933 at Amroha, India. He completed his diploma and post-diploma from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, India. He trained under renowned sculptor Mohammad Hanif at Lucknow College of Arts and Crafts in the early 60s. He came to Pakistan in 1962 and had a solo show at the Karachi Arts Council Hall, which was also the country's first solo sculpture exhibition. He set up the sculpture studio at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts and taught the technique of making life-size armature, simple casting and multiple casting with permanent moulds. He worked with great ease and facility in metals, wood, cement, Plaster of Paris, marble, stone and clay. He is best known for his pure realistic monumental sculptures which can be seen in many places around the country. He was an exponent of the Eastern idiom and his deep rooted aesthetics of the sub-continental culture bond us to the past. He had a huge following of artists in Pakistan, most of whom were his students. His acute observation of detail, timeless dedication to craftsmanship and the innate soul of a master allowed him to breathe life into any work of art from delicate pencil sketch to monumental sculptures. He was a friend and contemporary to leading artists and literary figures. He was a quiet, retiring man and spent the better part of the last twenty five years teaching sculpture to a generation of artists at the institute. He died of a heart attack in 1997 at Karachi. He was a highly skilled and respected sculptor who left a lasting legacy in the field of art.