In the Memory of

Ismail Gulgee

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Like his lines and images, Gulgee left us in a daze on Wednesday when his body was found lifeless and abandoned with two other bodies, that of his wife and a maid. His death in such mysterious circumstances was no comparison to his life, of a man with no perceivable limits to his imagination, his popularity, his diversity in throwing countless works of art with colors flying, images flirting and words embedded. Born as Ismail in Peshawar, he became the artist and the painter associated with Pakistan the world over. When in the 80s he visited India for the first time, none other than Rajiv Gandhi received him. He was called the MF Hussain of Pakistan, and by many other names. As shocked Pakistanis were waiting for details of his gruesome death, the world of art was almost falling apart, with bloggers on internet exploding like his dabs of paint on a wall-sized canvas. Portions of the canvas, said one blogger, sing with luminous lively colour, thick blobs of paint pulsate with fibre-glass tears, the brush swirls strong and free. That was our Gulgee.

There will be a lifetime to mourn the man who was not just a creator of art, but art personified. But the first thought is pure and simple. How could anyone kill such a man, if actually he has been strangled to death as initial reports suggest? The society as a whole will be to blame if Gulgee was actually murdered. If we cannot protect larger than life men like him, who are we trying to protect then? Someone, somewhere, at the top or in power, responsible for providing security to the citizens, will have to answer this question, sooner or later. But for now we have a soulless and motionless body of a great son of the country to bury. With his death, art round the world is in a state of mourning and so are we, ashamed and mortified. It will be simply impossible to get over the tragedy, even if we dig out the facts of when, why and who committed this atrocity.

[Gulgee Homepage] [Who Killed Gulgee] [Amin Gulgee] [Gulgee's Creativity] [Comments on Gulgee]