Osian's Auction Catalogue Select Masterpieces of Indian Modern and Contemporary Art | June 2009

115 53 Sadequain (1930 – 1987) Bol Ke Lab Azad Hain Tere... (Inspired by the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz) Mixed media on rexene Text in Urdu on the painting 78.2 x 48.0 in (198.5 x 122.0 cm) Condition Previously restored INR 2,400,000 – 3,000,000 USD 50,000 – 62,500 This work is based on famous Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry ‘Bol, Ke Lab Azad Hain Tere’. Faiz’s revolutionary poem asks the man to speak up when there’s still time. Sadequain provides visual imagery to his words with a chained man with lips stitched. The pen and ink in protagonist’s hands are his real weapons, provoking him to break the silence, and make the mark. The contradictions inherent in Sadequain’s persona as an artist make a singular assessment of his works a difficult task – his company of the powerful and elite, along with his popularity among the commoners and thus, the title “ awami painter ” bestowed to him. Sadequain’s role in modern art of the subcontinent is illustrious as the harbinger of renaissance in the calligraphic painting. In his works he traces the blasphemous journeys of an anguished soul/ ego, along with other laurels such as illustrating Ghalib’s verses (1968 – 69), Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s verses (1970) and lithographs for Albert Camus’s book The Stranger (1964).