Abdur Rahman Chughtai

Abdur Rahman Chughtai (21 September 1897 – 17 January 1975) was a Pakistani painter, regarded as the national artist of Pakistan and founder of a distinctive style of painting known as the "Chughtai style", strongly influenced by Mughal and Persian art, miniature painting and Islamic art traditions. Born and deceased in Lahore, he produced some two thousand watercolours and hundreds of etchings, designed postage stamps and the Pakistan Television logo, and received British and Pakistani titles and awards. ^{1 2}

He was born in Lahore to Karim Bukhsh, a designer of buildings, into a prominent Punjabi Muslim family of artists and craftsmen that produced painters, engravers and architects; this describes his family, not a recorded school affiliation of his own. He entered the Mayo School of Arts in 1911, where he was taught by Samarendranath Gupta and took a diploma in photo-lithography in 1915. He later taught miniature painting at the school, headed its lithography department and became its head before retiring in 1940 to devote himself to painting. His birth year is contested within the sources themselves: the English article's lead and birth category give 1894, while its infobox and early-life section give 1897, citing the Encyclopaedia Britannica profile, and the Urdu article's body likewise gives 1897 against its lead's 1894; the museum therefore follows 1897 and records the date as debated. ^{1 3}

His style, formed in the watercolours of the 1920s and 1930s, blended Mughal and Persian heritage with miniature painting and modern influences; it has been said of him that "amongst Muslim painters, Chughtai was the first to expose the West to Islamic art". He painted subjects drawn from Punjabi folklore and Urdu and Persian poetry, worked as the head artist of a Lahore press that produced the deluxe edition of the Diwan-i-Ghalib (1921) and the Works of Omar Khayyam (1925), and made more than 2,000 watercolour paintings and 300 etchings. Between 1951 and 1958 he designed Pakistani postage stamps, and in 1964 the logo of the Pakistan Television Corporation. His writings include Naqoosh-i-Raqam (1926) and Chughtai's Paintings (1935), and his account of the death of Allama Iqbal records that Iqbal chose him to illustrate his poetical works. ^{1 2}

The British government in India conferred the title Khan Bahadur on him in 1934; the Government of Pakistan awarded him the Hilal-i-Imtiaz in 1960, and in 1974 he was given the title "Musawwir-i-Mashriq" (Painter of the East). His works were exhibited in London, Paris and America, and were bought by many museums. ^{1 2}

He died in Lahore on 17 January 1975. He is still celebrated as Pakistan's national artist; the Chughtai Museum was established in Lahore in 1975, and Pakistan Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour in 2001. ^{1 3}

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