Gulgee's body together with his family was discovered in his home, sometime yesterday one more genius was murdered. We will miss u Gull Jee RIP
Ismail Gulgee (born 1926) is an award winning globally famous Pakistani artist. Qualified engineer in USA and self-taught abstract painter. Before 1959, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family.
His paintings are bright and full of color, but the paint is put on with greater sensitivity and paintings vibrate with intense feeling. Areas sing with luxminous thin color, thick blobs of paint pulsate with fiber-glass tears, the brush swirls strong and free. The total effect is very gray, yet considered and well thought out. They work enormously well, because it is all orchestrated with great care and concentration.
Paintings are often commissioned, or go abroad and therefore only reach relatively small audience. He has had exhibitions in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Amin Ismail Gulgee(October 25, 1926 - December 19, 2007) was an award-winning, globally famous
Pakistani artist born in
Peshawar on
October 25,
1926. He was a qualified engineer in the
U.S. and self-taught
abstract painter and
painter.
Engineer, portraitist, Islamic calligrapher, and action painter
According to artnet.com, Gulgee started to paint while acquiring his training as an engineer in the United States at
Columbia University and then
Harvard. His first exhibition was in
1950.
Gulgee is a gifted and consummately skilled naturalistic
portrait painter who has enjoyed (according to Partha Mitter) "lavish state support" and plenty of elite commissions in this capacity. Nevertheless, he is perhaps best known worldwide for his
abstract work, which is inspired by
Islamic calligraphy and is also influenced by the "
action painting" movement of the
1950s and
1960s (Mitter notes that
Elaine Hamilton was a strong influence in this direction). This is perhaps a natural enough stylistic combination, since in both Islamic calligraphy and action painting a high value is placed on the unity and energy of gestural flow. As with the works of other action painters or
abstract expressionists, Gulgee's canvases are often quite large. He is also known for using materials such as mirror glass and gold or silver leaf in his oil paintings, so that they are in fact
mixed media pieces.
According to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (see external links): "Gulgee's calligraphy paintings are abstract and gestural interpretations of
Arabic and
Urdu letters. His sweeping layers of paint explore the formal qualities of oil paint while they make references to
Islamic design elements."
Gulgee has since the 1960s also created sculptures, including bronze pieces that are (like so many of his paintings) calligraphic in form and inspiration, and sometimes specifically based on verses from the
Koran [source:artnet.com].
His paintings are bright and full of color, but the paint is put on with great sensitivity, and paintings vibrate with intense feeling. Areas sing with luminous, thin color; thick blobs of paint pulsate with fiberglass tears, the brush swirls strong and free. The total effect is very free, yet considered and well thought out. They work enormously well, because it is all orchestrated with great care and concentration.
His son
Amin Gulgee is also a famous artist.
[Note: the name is also spelled "Guljee", "Gulji", or "Gulgi" in some sources.]
International and Special assignments
Guljee as he is famously known has had many special requests for his paintings internationally. The list goes from Saudi royal family to the Islamabad presidency. His painting works have been amazing and many of his works are placed in The famous "Faisal Mosque" in Islamabad. Guljee has a long list of recognisation and awards given to him in Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, Japan and France etc.
Exhibition and Personal Life
Guljee's exhibitions have mostly been available to few people. Keeping that in mind and high demand from public and lovers of his works, an art gallery for Guljee has been built in Clifton, Karachi near South City Hospital and Sea View Karachi. Guljee mostly paints for his own inspirations and vision. Although selected paintings are available for sale in Guljee art gallery. Guljee is presently based in Muhammad Ali Housing society in Karachi.
ALLAH :
Nukta : (DOT)
