Sadequain: The Holy Sinner

Abdul Hamid Akhund, Farida Munavarjahan Said, and Zohra Yusuf, Sadequain: The Holy Sinner, Karachi: Mohatta Palace Museum in collaboration with Unilever Pakistan, 2003

xix, pp. 625; hard bound with dust jacket and slipcase
18.5 x 11.5 in (46.9 x 29.2 cm)

Only 1200 copies were printed and published.

"Sadequain: The Holy Sinner" was a spectacular retrospective held in 2002-2003 that featured over two hundred of Sadequain's non-calligraphic works. It reflected the artist's existential preoccupations with human suffering underpinned by his famous notion of "mystic figuration."

The book is primarily based on the famous exhibition of paintings of Sadequain titled, "The Holy Sinner: Sadequain" which ended about fifteen years ago and was by far the largest-attended and longest-running exhibition in the history of Pakistani art.

The title of the exhibition, "The Holy Sinner" was borrowed from the novel of the German Nobel prize-winning writer Thomas Mann. Painstakingly curated by Hameed Haroon and assisted by Salima Hashmi, it traced the transformation of Sadequain's style from one of semi realism to profound allegory.

This book is a tribute and celebration of this Pakistani artist's vitality, innovation, restless fervor and immense amount of energy.

The book of about 700 pages, weighing 12 kg, includes reproduction of some 400 of Sadequain's creations, supported by an anthology of critical commentaries by the artist's contemporaries and journalists including renowned artistic figures and critics. It contains essays on the great artist and plates of his paintings and sketches.

The sections in the book consist of Photographic Essay, Critical Approaches, Recollections, Reproductions, Catalogue, Pictures at an Exhibition, Rubaiyat, Photo Epilogue, Afterward, Life and Works. The book is largest monograph in the region complied and produced to pay unprecedented tribute to a single artist, setting a new trend for paying tributes to artists in South Asia.