The life and art of ajmal hussain the painter of east

For some of us, life is often mundane and drab, as if wrapped in a constant shade of grey. For others, it is forever brimming with colours. The late Ajmal Hussain fell into the latter category; as his daughter Samira Hussain-Friggeri summed up, "Even his tears were as bright as a rainbow". Samira was speaking at the opening of a retrospective exhibition of Hussain's work at the Alliance Francaise de Karachi Art Gallery, which also included the launch of his biographical volume 'The Life and Art of Ajmal Hussain - The painter of the East'. "He knew that the road from talent to achievement is long," elaborated Samira. For Ajmal's daughter, the painter was not an aesthetic but what she termed as an 'eastitist' due to the overpowering Eastern elements in most of his works. "He believed there is only language worthy of communication, and that is beauty." The son of former Dawn editor Altaf Hussain, Ajmal started his career as a political cartoonist for the newspaper. "He was a man gifted with the pen and the brush alike," said Nusrat Nasrullah. "I hope we as a society do more for him than just this exhibition." As his career progressed, Ajmal worked as the editor of Sunday magazine for Dawn and Illustrated Weekly of Pakistan. In the 1970s, he moved to France and had studios in London, Paris and Karachi. Such was Ajmal's talent, and so renowned his work, that he was the first Pakistani artist to have a solo exhibition in Germany.