Khalid iqbal is considered as the father of landscape painting and the initiator of the Modern Realism in Pakistan. He has this unique honour to become the first male teacher at at the Fine Arts Department of the university of the Punjab, Lahore when he was appointed to teach the first ever batch of boy-students at the Department in 1956-58. He breathed his last today at Lahore.
Many of Khalid Iqbal’s students and followers have earned high repute in painting and sculpture like Colin David, Zulqarnain Haider, Sufi Waqar, Ghulam Rasul and many others.
Khalid Iqbal was born on 23rd June 1929 at Simla, Jammu & Kashmir. In 1945, he did his O’ Level from St. Joseph’s Academy, Dheradun; thecapital of thestateofUttarakhandin thenorthernpart ofIndia. By 1948, he was taking Art lessons from Sheikh Ahmad; the husband of Anna Molka Ahmad. In 1949, Khalid did his BA from Forman Christian (FC) College Lahore and joined Aitchison College Lahore as an Art Teacher. In 1952, he did a diploma in French from the Oriental College Lahore and the same year he went on to study fine arts at the renowned Slade School of Arts, University of London, UK. From 1956 to 1965, he served the Fine Arts Department of the University of the Punjab as a senior lecturer. In 1965, he joined the National College of Arts as Associate Professor and Head of the Fine Arts Department, and after almost a decade in 1974, he was promoted as the acting Principal of the NCA. He served the NCA until his retirement in 1981. At NCA, he was honoured with the Chair of Professor Emeritus in 1993. Khalid Iqbal has been conferred upon the Quaid-e Azam Award in painting in 1977 and the President’s Medal for Pride of Performance in 1980.
