ISLAMABAD An exhibition of 24 paintings by renowned painter and calligrapher Sadequain in the form of limited edition Giclee prints on canvas will be kicked off today (Thursday) at the Gallery 6 at house 624, street 44, G-9/1. On the occasion, two new books about Sadequain will also be launched including a collection of his calligraphies The Legend of Sadequain - Renaissance of Calligraphic Art in Pakistan, the first of its kind about Sadequains calligraphic art, presenting biographical notes and a collection of over 160 calligraphic paintings. The second book Mystic Expressions by Sadequain - an odyssey to exaltation with Ghalib, Iqbal, Faiz and Sadequain has illustrations, or one could even call them interpretations, of poetry by the artist. The event is being organised by Gallery 6 in Islamabad and Sadequain Foundation based in San Diego, California, USA. The Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to discover, preserve, and promote the art of Sadequain. The Director of the Foundation, Salman Ahmad has come from USA to attend the function. Other invited speakers for the occasion are Sarwar Naqvi, Mansur Rahi, and Aasim Akhtar, who will highlight various aspects of this celebrated man who became a legend in his lifetime. It is amazing that Sadequain never attended any art school, but his innate ability and remarkable eye placed him as a talent of enormously high scale. He experimented with several artistic ways before finding his own iconic style at Gadani beach, while on the road to recovery from a life threatening illness. He was captivated by the image of waves crashing against huge rocks, the death-grey bleakness of the seashore, and the only plant that survived the ragged, rough and fierce environment - the Cactus. He once said, Cactus grows in the most hostile climates, yet it grows majestically. To me it symbolises the triumph of life over the environment. Once I used to identify it with my own self. Then I started identifying it with the whole community........ Sadequains cacti became people and his people became cacti. He was a painter concerned with the reflection of social reality. His works reflected the social process, its conflicts and contradictions, and the struggle to achieve. The current exhibition does not display original paintings but Giclee prints of paintings by Sadequain. The GiclTe prints are fine art prints made from a digital source using ink-jet printing process. The display captures his various periods and includes those works also that were painted by him while living in foreign countries and have never been seen or documented in Pakistan or elsewhere before. For example, Ladies in a Bus done in 1956, Man and Lawyer or Reflections done in 1965 are totally new works for the audience in Pakistan. These works show the influence of Picasso and masterpieces of other contemporary artists of that time. Marie - a character of a novel and painted in France in 1960s is simply mesmerising. Besides these, there is a mural that was painted at Banaras Hindu University in India, and also his famous paintings like Europa, Man at Sandspit, and others. The Giclee prints of Sadequains paintings for this exhibition have been made in the USA and are limited edition reproductions of the masters works. These will be offered for sale at very reasonable price in pursuance of the charter of the Foundation. All pieces of artwork offered by the Sadequain Foundation are registered and copyright protected by the United States Library of Congress and they carry the Foundations seal, serial number and date. Besides the Giclee prints on canvas of figurative work, the exhibition also has 6 Giclee prints of the calligraphic works of the artist, as he also led the renaissance of Islamic calligraphy. In 1985, giving an interview describing his role in reviving this art he said, I started doing it 18 years ago and exhibiting it; others followed. It became like a movement......I feel calligraphy should be legible and at the same time, every letter should have an aesthetic equilibrium, a certain composition, a certain balance, so that it is pleasant to look at.