ISLAMABAD:Globally famous painter and sculptor Ismail Gulgee was remembered on Monday at his birth anniversary.
Born on October 25 1926 in Peshawar,Gulgee was an award winning artist who won pride of performance, sitara-e-Imtiaz (twice), hilal-e-imtiaz and several international awards.
He was a qualified engineer in the U.S. and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family.
Initially, he went to Aligarh University to study civil engineering before heading off to USA for continuing his higher education.
Gulgee started to paint while acquiring his training as an engineer in the United States at Columbia University and then Harvard. His first exhibition was held in 1950.
Gulgee was a gifted and consummately skilled naturalistic portrait painter.
He was perhaps best known worldwide for his abstract work, which was inspired by Islamic calligraphy and was also influenced by the “action painting” movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
He was also known for using materials such as mirror glass and gold or silver leaf in his oil paintings.
His paintings were bright and full of color, but the paint was put on with great sensitivity, and paintings vibrate with intense feeling.Guljee received many awards from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Japan and France.
Gulgee, his wife Zarrin Gulgee and a maid were found dead in their house on the evening of December 19, 2007 by his servants. Police suspected that all three had been murdered.
Gulgee was buried on the evening of December 20, 2007, in Karachi.