http://www.statesman.com.pk/today/local/local3.htm
‘Man with golden hands’ complains of govt apathy
By Shaheen Buneri
PESHAWAR: Liaqat Ali Khan, a prominent artist and painter of the world’s largest portrait, has complained of the indifferent attitude of the high government authorities towards him and his artistic work.
Liaqat, who is also known as “a man of golden hands”, was born in 1949 in Kohat. He obtained a diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Peshawar. Later, he did a diploma certificate course at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad. As a matter of fact, he got immense popularity by painting big images of the renowned Muslim personalities.
For his excellent work in the field of painting, he has been bestowed upon many awards like the Sarhad Equity Award, Pakistan, 1973, Best Artist Award, Abu Dhabi, 1994, Pakistan Golden Jubilee Award, Quaid-e-Azam Award, UAE, and Lifetime Achievement Award, Pakistan Community, UAE.
The Gulf News in its special edition called him as a ‘man of golden hands’.
Recently, Liaqat has painted the world’s largest portrait of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, measuring 8,000 square feet, for display in Islamabad. He affirms that the portrait is his gift of love to the nation.
Liaqat, who is an employ of the Abu Dhabi Municipality, has recently returned to the country to meet President General Pervez Musharraf and request him to install his artistic masterpiece in front of the Convention Centre in Islamabad.
“It was my life’s dream to paint the largest portrait of the Quaid-e-Azam and with the grace of the almighty Allah, my dream was materialised. I spent Rs. 8 lakh on this portrait out of my own pocket. When I took it to Islamabad, the president appreciated my work and promised that the government would install it at an appropriate place in the federal capital, but this promise has yet to be fulfilled,” Liaqat said while talking to The Statesman during an interview here on Tuesday.
He maintained that the foreign governments, especially the Abu Dhabi authorities, had arranged a number of exhibitions of his portraits and honoured him with awards, but his own people and government had adopted a very indifferent attitude towards him.
“The president of Pakistan had written to the CDA to install my hand-made portrait in Islamabad. The CDA estimated that Rs. 1 million would be spent on this plan. Until now, the CDA has not installed it. As the portrait is in pieces, there is every danger that it may lose its original colours. I also say to the government authorities that if they can not honour the work of a Pakistani artist, I am ready to sell my house in Kohat and pay for the expenses of its installation,” he observed.
The media channels and press media in Abu Dhabi gave extensive coverage to his interviews and the stories about his experiments in the field of oil painting. His novel attempts in the field of oil painting have given a new direction to the artists and art lovers.
“I have introduced a new technique in oil painting, which is the result of my hard work during the past 22 years. I don’t use brush. The first shades are created on plywood and then colours are spread over it by an air blower. There is no use of brushes and no traditional ways are adopted for painting under this technique. The artists of the western countries take special interest in my work and give me honour,” he explained.
The talented artist added that at first he tried to portray a 3,840 square feet image of the Father of the Nation, but when he heard that an Indian artist was portraying a 4,000 square feet image of Gandhi, he stopped work on his previous project and created an 8,000 square feet large image of MA Jinnah.
“The portrait consists of 500 small pieces and its weight is 2,970 kilogram. It is the largest image in the world,” he claimed.
He further said, “I want to convey the message of love and friendship through my paintings. Generally I portray landscape, meadows and seashores that signify the serenity of nature and the vigour of human life. I have also created large images of Sheikh Zaid, the UAE president, which were installed along a famous highway in Abu Dhabi,” he informed.