Shahid Sajjad (born 1936

Muzaffarnagar Muzaffarnagar (, ) is a city under Muzaffarnagar district in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated midway on the Delhi - Haridwar/Dehradun National Highway ( NH 58) and is also well connected with the national railway network. It ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

) was a Pakistani sculptor. He died on July 28, 2014, in

Karachi Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...

, Pakistan. His work continues to influence subsequent practitioners of these genres across Pakistan.

Life

Sajjad was born in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, in 1936. Shahid Sajjad was a self-taught sculptor who began his career in advertising in 1955; a path that led him to become art director at an advertising agency in Karachi. Shahid traveled through South-East Asia, the Middle East and Europe on a motorcycle between 1960 and 1963. His first one-man show was held at the Karachi Arts Council in 1964. During a trip to Paris, his encounter with a single wood carving by Gauguin at the Louvre convinced him that this was what he must do. His determination led to his journey to the Rangamati forest in 1965, where he prepared fallen trees for carving, learning the qualities of the wood through trial and error.

Career

He took on a lucrative position in an advertising agency until around his twenties, deciding to travel Asia by motorbike. His journey left him at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in Paris. There, Sajjad was inspired by a

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...

crafted by French artist

Paul Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...

. In 1965, he returned to the South Asian subcontinent — a remote village called

Rangamati Rangamati () is a town and the administrative headquarters of Rangamati District in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh. The town is located at 22°37'60N 92°12'0E and has an elevation of above sea level. Demographics According to th ...

East Pakistan East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...

(now

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

), located within the

Chittagong Hill Tracts The Chittagong Hill Tracts (), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, refers to the three hilly districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma) in the east: Kh ...

. Sajjad visited Japan just eight years later; there, he learned the

lost-wax casting Lost-wax castingalso called investment casting, precision casting, or ''cire perdue'' (; borrowed from French)is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cast from an original scul ...

method from sculptor, Akio Kato. Shahid lived and worked in the tribal area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts now Bangladesh. On his return from the Chittagong hill Tracts, he worked as art director for an advertising agency in Karachi until 1971, following which he turned to designing sets for a National dance ensemble for nearly two years. During the same period, he visited China and Japan, studying Lost Wax Bronze casting technique under Japanese sculptor Akio Kato whom he acknowledges as his only master. Shahid held a solo exhibition of wood and bronze sculptures at the Karachi Arts Council in 1974 and won the first prize in sculpture at the National Exhibition in Islamabad in 1977. A year later, he exhibited his bronze work at Atelier BM, Karachi. Shahid was commissioned by the Pakistan Army to execute a mural in bronze, later titled 'Cavalry through the Ages' that he completed in 1981. He was awarded national prize for sculpture in 1982. In 1980 he was offered the President’s Pride of Performance Award which he politely refused. In 1987, Shahid showed his 'Deduction' prints at Chawkandi Art, Karachi. The following year, he was invited by Seoul Olympics Organizing Committee to participate in the Olympiad of Art. Shahid's sculpture 'Woman in Agony' remains on permanent display at the Seoul Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul, South Korea. The sculptor also participated in the Indian Triennial in Delhi, India, in 1991 and SAARC Festival held in the capital city in 1992. From 1992 to 1994, Shahid worked in Mansehra in North west Frontier Province of Pakistan on a series of woodcarvings that were shown at an exhibition titled 'My Primitives' held at Chawkandi art in 1994 and subsequently at the National college of Arts, Laahore. During this period, Shahid participated in the 6th Asian art Biennial held in Dacca, Bangladesh and the International Cairo Biennial in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt. In the same year, Shahid was also a participant in the IAA-UNESCO Conference at Fukuoka, Japan, as he was a year later in the Istaqlal 11 Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia. Having executed the Nowshera Bronze mural successfully, Shahid was commissioned to execute a mural in

cold cast bronze Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

for the Maritime Museum, Karachi, in 1996, the same year he was conferred a fellowship of the National college of Arts. Shahid is also a founder member of the Indus Valley school of Arts and architecture, Karachi. Around the close of the year, Shahid participated in the UNESCO-sponsored International Sculpture Event organized by ANC-IAA at the Toolangi Forest near Melbourne, Australia. The work completed by participating artists remains on permanent display at the Toolangi forest discovery Center. Shahid has held A retrospective exhibition at the National College of Arts, Lahore and subsequently at the Indus valley School of Arts and architecture in 2010.

Exhibitions

* A retrospective at IVSAA, 2010 * Solo Show Karachi Arts Council, 1974

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sajjad, Shahid Pakistani sculptors 1936 births 2014 deaths People from Muzaffarnagar Muhajir people