Sadequain

Sadequain was a Pakistani artist and poet who is considered one of the finest painters and calligraphers Pakistan has ever produced, having painted around 15000 paintings. He was also a poet, writing hundreds of rubaiyat in the style of Omar Khayyam and Sarmad Kashani. He was part of a broader Islamic art movement that emerged independently across North Africa and parts of Asia in the 1950s and known as the Hurufiyya movement. He rejected Western art concepts, and instead searched for a new visual language that reflected his own culture and heritage. He transformed calligraphy into a modern aesthetic, which was both contemporary and indigenous. He painted classical literature from the poetic verses of Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz. He also illustrated French Nobel Prize–winning writer Albert Camus. He received all four civilian awards such as the Nishan-i-Imtiaz, Sitara-i-Imtiaz, Tamgha-i-Imtiaz, and Pride of Performance. He was also awarded the "Key to the City" of New York in 1975 — the only Pakistani to receive this award. To honor his work, a commemorative postage stamp was issued for him in 2006 by the Pakistan Postal Department. He died of natural causes in his studio in Karachi, Pakistan on 10 February 1987. He was 56 years old.