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Iqbal Hussain
– the enfant terrible
of Pakistan art
interviewed by
Salman Minhas
[Information
Engineers, Lahore,
Pakistan].
at Iqbal Hussain’s Coco’s Den and Haveli,
Lahore
Copyright the-south-asian.com
'Four
Girls' - a painting by Iqbal Hussain
So
Khaled Iqbal was your mentor /Guru.
Yes - I
did not know anything about theory, I was really bad at theory. I remember
in 1st year there was a girl Nada in my class ……she lived near Daata Darbar
[the Sufi shrine near-by in the old city of
Lahore]
she sat behind me and told me in Urdu & Punjabi [Iqbal ai haiga - this is
the answer, etc.] And I tried that to write the theory exam. She herself
failed, but I passed. Even before and now, I am a very strong believer in
God - He makes ways for you. First, that girl helped me and then Khaled
Iqbal sahib. It’s unbelievable when I recall those days. So I passed my
thesis. After that I looked for a job but could not find one.
There
were teachers who knew nothing about painting- they pretended to be
painters, but basically they were confused. Now I realize that in the NCA
[National College of Arts – also called
Mayo
College
in pre-1947] nobody knew anything about Arts. The teachers took short
courses (6 months to 1-year ) from abroad and started teaching students
here, which was really very bad. The only man who knew painting was Khaled
Iqbal. Others copied styles of Picasso; some copied others - I also copied
Picasso at the time.
After I
did my thesis I started looking for a job. Chugtai at the time was doing
very different work. He was feted and dined when he joined NCA. I took my
entire portfolio of paintings along with me on a Tonga [the traditional
horse carriage] to the social welfare department to meet Abida Hussain [a
feudal politician from south of
Lahore]
who, at that time, was heading the social welfare department. She would look
at my paintings and say "Very good…" but without meaning it, and that was
that.
Then
there arose a vacancy in NCA for a lecturer. I did not have any "approach"
[lobbying] to get that job but nevertheless applied for it. There were 25 to
30 applicants for the job. Talat, and Pirzada were among the candidates.
Peoples Party was in power and I did not stand a chance. Anyway, I gave it a
try. I was teaching at the time at
Cathedral
School
– from where I was subsequently thrown out.
Again,
coming back to the story, a miracle happened. I got an interview call for
the next morning and luckily the night before my interview, they [the
interviewing NCA teaching staff] were all caught in the Ghazala Sana scandal
case, and they all confessed their crime. The Interview could not be
postponed and the government orders came that the interview should be
carried out on a merit basis. I was selected. This, to me, was a miracle. I
began teaching at NCA.
There
was not much age difference between the students and me because I had just
passed out and started teaching .I was constantly working and Khalid Sahib
often visited me at home. I owe him a lot because he lived in Model Town and
in the summer heat he would sit in a wagon, get off at Taxali gate and walk
from there to my home to see my paintings. As Head of the department, he
would come to see my paintings. He may have seen some spark in me. The good
thing in him is that he was always encouraging. He would say stuff that had
no parallel. He was an excellent landscape painter.
In
1975-76 before starting the teaching job I opened an Art Gallery in the
ground floor of my present house [called "Holy
Palace"
& Cucoo’s Den- the cafeteria] and used to teach the children. I told Khalid
Sahib that I want to open an
Art
Gallery,
so he gave me his paintings for display. Those days I did a lot of
landscapes and went to Islamabad and Rawal Dam on motorbike for landscape
painting.
Then one
day Khaled sahib came to my house, saw my landscapes and said that this was
not his way of seeing things. This was the second turning point of my life –
the first one being the black and white drawing. Following Khaled Sahib’s
honest comments, I forgot about landscapes and started portraits and he
visited me constantly. I did my first one man show exhibition in Punjab Arts
Council. Once again Khaled Sahib said to me, "Look Iqbal your paintings are
not going to sell [teri paintings vikni shikni koi nai ….] so keep on
working.
At the
time of this exhibition I invited all my neighbours - the singing, dancing
girls were all there. Ghulam Mustafa [deputy Director Arts Council] took off
my exhibition after two days and said that there is going to be an
exhibition of a Turkish painter. After three days they again put on my
exhibition - that’s how they killed my show; they always said to me that
they will buy my paintings but never did.
There
were many instances of Khaled sahib helping me out. During my thesis when I
had my theory paper, he called me early in the morning and explained the
theory to me in Punjabi, because I don’t have any qualification as I had
just done Matric in 3rd division. He said, "Look Iqbal, this was
Michelangelo, [ai ainj see, ainj see], and this and that, etc. [pass ho jain,
Bas too chaalli – 40- number lai key aa jain ….] He told me to just get 40
marks and pass the paper. I said to him ok. He tried to educate me but I did
not take any interest in studies. I just looked at pictures and paintings.
In Hazoori Bagh [gardens near Badshahi mosque] in the evenings, our teachers
would ask us "German Expressionist ka pata hai?" I would say, "Who is that?
"
Who
were you impressed with at that time?
Now I
realize that at that time nobody taught us anything correctly, hundreds of
slides of paintings were thrown at us, and this is still going on at NCA,
theoretical teaching is bad because nobody knew anything about painting. At
that time Van Gogh appealed to me.
People
at NCA were such pseudos, painting with tissues… if you ask any teacher to
demonstrate how to make a drawing of a glass… they can’t do it. "NCA noo
kahk nahin aanda" [at NCA, nobody knows an iota]. They can’t demonstrate.
[Kuch nahin] – Nothing, they are just covering up. That’s it. They ask
students to look at Chaggal, Picasso, Mark Rothko, and say "Pai twhanoon
kee……….. [What’s that to you]? They imitate art, [hai kuch nahin]; at the
most they will do miniatures and say this is the culture of Pakistan. I am
not getting personal. I have to be vocal, just want to be honest for the
sake of future generations. If I am not honest, they will say, koi rakh
rakhao tey nahin? [is there any give and take going on………….?]
Then I
stopped copying Khalid Iqbal and was really impressed by Van Gogh. Khalid
Sahib supported me in many different ways, financially etc. He was treated
badly at NCA. Once he asked for leave but they refused him and then he
resigned and they accepted it.
What
was Khalid Iqbal’s strength?
He was a
specialist in landscapes. As a teacher he was excellent. He knew everything
about painting and history of painting. Whenever I meet him he says that I
fight a lot and everyone in
Lahore
is annoyed with me because I am honest. All I have said is that people
should stop painting after 60 because their hands shake a lot and they are
not able to paint, but if you can paint, then carry on, that’s why everyone
is annoyed with me.
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