From calligraphy to painting
Sadequain was a Pakistani painter, calligrapher and muralist born in Amroha, in present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. Mathaf’s artist biography describes a family tradition of calligraphy and his work as a calligrapher-copyist at All India Radio in Delhi. It says he moved to Karachi in 1948, after Partition. The museum’s account identifies both figurative painting and calligraphy in his work, as well as his engagement with Urdu poetry. His connection to Punjab includes art made for Lahore institutions; his birthplace should not be confused with the Punjab region. His career also extended well beyond Lahore.[1]
A ceiling for Lahore Museum
Lahore Museum’s online record presents a ceiling mural attributed to Sadequain and dated 1973. Titled Quest for Knowledge in that record, it is a large work made from multiple panels. The record gives a way to see the mural as a museum object and to examine its imagery and physical construction. Other reports refer to the work as Evolution of Mankind, so both names may help readers find material about it. Its scale and setting differ from a framed painting: it was created for a public interior and later became the subject of a long conservation effort.[2]
A conservation challenge
In 2018, Dawn reported plans to display one restored panel and one unrestored panel at Lahore Museum. The report described damage from weather and termites and quoted museum staff on the care required for restoration. It also said the treated panels had become too heavy to return to the ceiling as then planned. The museum’s online record and the newspaper give different panel counts, so this account does not choose between them. The report is evidence of the situation in 2018, not a statement of the mural’s current condition or display arrangements. Conservation changes both the physical work and the questions its custodians must address.[3]
Sources & notes
Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.
- Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Syed Sadequain Ahmed Naqvi ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Biography and artistic practice. Accessed 2026-11-03.Written source or collection record inspected; original works and underlying interviews not independently examined.Return to From calligraphy to painting, paragraph 1 ↑
- Lahore Museum via Google Arts & Culture. Sadequain mural: Quest for Knowledge ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Museum record for ceiling mural. Accessed 2026-11-03.Written source or collection record inspected; original works and underlying interviews not independently examined.Return to A ceiling for Lahore Museum, paragraph 1 ↑
- Shoaib Ahmed. Sadequain’s mural panel to be displayed ↗Written source · Source date: 2018-02-27 · Locator: Restoration report. Accessed 2026-11-03.Written source or collection record inspected; original works and underlying interviews not independently examined.Return to A conservation challenge, paragraph 1 ↑
Record PH-PEO-0258 · English edition · human review not performed