Today's story is about a legend. A person that made his nation proud with his Artistic skills. The person I'm talking about is Abdur Rahman Chughtai, One of Pakistan's Greatest painters.
Abdur Rahman Chughtai (1897–1975) was a painter and intellectual from Pakistan, who created his own unique, distinctive painting style influenced by Mughal art, miniature painting, Art Nouveau and Islamic art traditions. He is considered 'the first significant modern Muslim artist from South Asia', and the national artist of Pakistan. He was given the title of Khan Bahadur in 1934, awarded Pakistan's Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 1960, and the Presidential medal for Pride of Performance in 1968.
Chughtai's year of birth is given variously as 1894, 1897 and 1899, but the official family website has it as 21 September 1897. He was born in Lahore in the area known as 'Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran', the second son of Karim Bukhsh, in a family descended from generations of craftsmen, architects, and decorators. Chughtai briefly learnt naqqashi from his uncle Baba Miran Shah Naqqash at a local mosque. After completing his education at the Railway Technical School, Lahore, in 1911, Chughtai joined the Mayo School of Art, where Samarendra Nath Gupta, a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore was Vice-Principal.
After leaving the school, he made a living for a while as a photographer and drawing teacher. He eventually became the head instructor in chromo-lithography at the Mayo School. In 1916, Chughtai's first painting in a revivalist 'oriental' style appeared in the Modern Review. He had his first exhibition in 1920 at the Punjab Fine Art Society. He also exhibited with the Indian School of Oriental Art during the 1920s, by which time he had become quite renowned. His work contributed greatly to Lahore's burgeoning modern art scene. Whilst he predominantly worked with watercolors, Chughtai was also a print-maker, perfecting his etching skills in London during visits in the mid-1930s.
In his sixty years of artistic creation, Chughtai produced nearly 2000 watercolours, thousands of pencil sketches, and nearly 300 etchings and aquatints. He also wrote short stories, and articles on art. He designed stamps, coins, insignia and book covers. He was also an avid collector of miniatures and other art. He published three books of his own work: the Muraqqa-i-Chughtai (1928), Naqsh-i-Chughtai (c. 1935) and Chughtai's Paintings (1940). The Muraqqa-i-Chughtai was a sumptuously illustrated edition of Mirza Ghalib's Urdu poetry, with a foreword by Sir Muhammad Iqbal. It is regarded as the most significant work of Chughtai's career and in its time, was considered the finest achievement in book production in the country.
After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Chughtai came to be regarded as one of the most famous representatives of Pakistan. Chughtai’s paintings were given to visiting heads of states. Allama Iqbal, Pablo Picasso, Elizabeth II were amongst his admirers. Chughtai's closest associate was his younger brother Abdullah Chughtai, a scholar and researcher of Islamic art. Chughtai married twice, and had two children, a son and daughter. He died in Lahore on 17 January 1975. Mr. Chughtai was a Gem of a person. While talking to his Grand son.
We asked him what type of a person was he?
He replied " Ammar Beta! My Father would tell me that when ever someone came to our door in need of help My Father (Chughtai) would help him and tell him the solution of his problem. Other then that he liked walking alone thinking on multiple subjects. He was a very disciplined man. And a very loving person."
Mr. Chughtai is our Pride. We should always remember him in our prayers.
An Inspiring Personality Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Pakistan
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