While preparing the seven episodes for Professor Khalid Iqbals Corner and reading the book Khalid Iqbal, A Pioneer of Modern Realism in Pakistan by Musarrat Hasan, a para got my attention which is though not directly about Khalid Iqbal and is about the renowned painter and ex - Principal rather Founder of modern NCA, Shakir Ali. This para shows the dilemma of loneliness which was faced by him and later by Khalid Iqbal also, so it is worth sharing here: When Shakir Ali retired from College (in March1974), he was a broken and a shattered man. Rightly or wrongly he felt that the very people whom he had nurtured and promoted had betrayed him. When he was the Principal, these people had taken full advantage od his friendship and his very generous hospitality. They failed to support him when he needed their support and had in fact actively campaigned against him to remove him from his post of Principal. That was a time Shakir Ali would sit every evening, all alone in his house which might have been a masterpiece of design and innovation but was dark and depressing as the abode of a very disheartened painter. Every evening he would sit and brood in that dark house with no one to keep him company except his cousin who kept house for him. The only people who ever visited him were Khalid Iqbal Ijaz ul Hassan and sometimes Ijaz Anwar. Khalid of course was much more regular. He visited Shakir every evening until the time of his death. Note: Shakir Ali (6 March 1914(16?) - 27 January 1975) survived less than a year after his retirement. His 61st birthday was due on 6th March. Ten days earlier (17 January 1975) Abdur Rehman Chughtai another famous painter of the same era had passed away.
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 08:48:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015