Meeting Iqbal Hussain in Lahore
During my recent visit to Lahore, I met the Lahore artist, Iqbal Hussain. We had a nice, engaging chat, saw his recent works some displayed and some eating dust in the splendid Cooco’s Cafe located next to the Badshahi Mosque.
Iqbal’s matter-of-fact portraits have introduced the multiple nuances and shades of Lahore’s red-light area to the world. The women subjects are mostly from the area and he paints them with stark candour and brings out the depths of expressions and emotions in his lines and brush-strokes.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of Iqbal is the establishment of Cooco’s Cafe that has turned into a cultural landmark and has also catalysed urban renewal in the neighbourhood.
Among his recent paintings is the portrait of actor-writer Feryal Ali Gauhar with her dog. This is an uncommon subject but the result is fabulous. I was quick to take a photo (see the image below).
Iqbal is a down-to-earth artist with no pretensions. The directness and simplicity of his work is a reflection of his personality. He braved the mainstream opposition to his paintings with a stoic attitude and has invested his time and soul into the growth of cooco’s as a fine place that offers much more than the old city delicacies and cuisine. I can’t wait to meet him again and see his new work.
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For the last few weeks, BBC two has been running shows about India and Pakistan because of the 60th anniversary. He was featured on one of the shows that I saw last week. He also showed some paintings that he is not allowed to display publicly.
Comment by cubano — August 17, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Oh, I missed the show :(. Yes, he showed me several of his works that he cannot display given Pakistan’s public morality (or shall we say hypocrisy).
thanks for the comment and reading my post.
cheers
R
Comment by RR — August 17, 2007 @ 10:03 am
Heartfelt thanks for the post. I love to read about Pakistani art.
Comment by Manas Shaikh — August 17, 2007 @ 12:59 pm
Are his female subjects mostly the prostitutes who house that area? Interesting choice, and a a hard one at that given that there is a stranglehold on art. I am curious to know more about him…
Comment by I Me My — August 18, 2007 @ 3:28 pm
From the BBC show, I found out that his female subjects are the prostitutes and more interestingly he is the child of a prostitute that used to work in the area. He said that he also faced discrimination because of that.
Comment by cubano — August 18, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
Very interesting …!
One has to visit Cuccoo’s den to feel the ambiance of place. I had the pleasure to visit it an year back, a brief history of place and the artist behind it, Iqbal Hussain, is printed at the back of Menu card, as well.
Few months back I saw a detailed interview of is on a tv channel as well and was delighted to know what a humble person he is. The name of cafe’ is not cuccoo’s den referring to the bird cuckoo but the nick name of Iqbal Hussain is cuccoo
Further he told in the interview that when the restaurant was formed, his students from NCA used to wait here on voluntarily basis and two of his colleagues were the regular customers for many months … they used to have tea for Rs. 5-10 almost daily.
A worthy place it is … opening the windows inside the world we usually shun and wants never to be discussed.
Thanks for a delightful post
Comment by Asma — August 19, 2007 @ 11:19 am
i enjoyed reading this, and also the comments which give me more information about the artist and his work. A sort of Southasian Toulose-Lautrec. It was also lovely to see Feryal’s– friend and someone I admire– portrait! Thank you again for your blog which enriches my understanding so much.
Comment by vidya rao — August 19, 2007 @ 11:36 am
Asma and Vidya-ji
many thanks for the comments.
Id: yes this is Lahore’s ancient red-light area ironically next to the Badshahi Mosque. And Iqbal is from that area.
You can read more here:
http://www.razarumi.com/2007/02/06/iqbal-hussain-lahores-controversial-artist/
Comment by RR — August 19, 2007 @ 5:10 pm
And to know that I actually didn’t see this place, last time I was in Lahore?! Cuccoos Cafe is one of the places I definitely intend to visit on my next travel to Lahore (2008?). Raza, as usual, you present brilliant subjects on your site. You also, must be an equally (if not more) interesting to know!
Is there a way to see the portraits in a larger format? As you know I paint, and would like to see some detailing of Iqbal Hussain’s work. From what I can make out from the above photos, he definitely is outstanding!
Comment by Shaheen Sultan Dhanji — January 6, 2008 @ 9:09 pm