Tassaduq Sohail Collection

Early Life (1930 – 1961)

Sohail was born in Jallunder in 1930, a provincial town in the plains of old Punjab, where he was to experience the unforgettable. In 1947, the subcontinent was brutally carved up, with fighting ferociously unleashed in the Punjab—a wave of communal butchery previously unknown to a people accustomed to centuries of coexistence.

His hometown was awarded to India, and his family fled for safety to Pakistan. Treading upon crooked alleys and grisly streets stained with congealed blood and lined by rotting corpses, he witnessed with petrifying shock his beloved town transformed into a horrific abattoir. 

Sohail and his family moved to Lahore, however while his family remained there Sohail was sent to Karachi to stay with his uncle, continue his studies, and find work.

Sohail struggled against the oppressive rule of the mullahs. At the time, there was little space for art in Pakistan, nor was self-expression encouraged. Pakistan was controlled by the mullahs and a medieval style of Islamic law, which suited the successive military dictators who ruled the country. These mullahs later became a prominent feature of his work, often depicted comically riding horses and wearing red high heels.

Sohail attended a technical college and found a clerical job to take care of his finances. According to Sohail he became a writer by chance. He began a romance with the girl next door, confined to exchanging letters. One day, he found a letter tampered with—his aunt had read it, which meant deep trouble. Thinking quickly, he wrote a story around the letter. When his uncle confronted him, Sohail claimed it was part of a short story. Forced to follow through, he sent it to a local magazine, and to his surprise, it was published.

He went on to write mainly romances, producing more than 200 short stories. Sohail was always prolific, constantly creating. He was introduced to literary circles where writers read their work before audiences of poets, authors, and critics. Encouraged by this group, he continued to write.

While working at Norwich Union’s typing pool he met a girl in the office. Letters were the core of the passion. Every day whilst pretending to be engaged in office work they would write letters to each other. 

However his family were urging a marriage on him which he had no taste for and he began thinking he needed to spread his wings. Meanwhile his office love jilted him for his colleague. The sight of her going home with him in the evenings was too much.  Instead, he decided to go to London.

Arriving in London

Sohail arrived in London in 1961. With 5 pounds to his name and a contact, his friends uncle whom he had never met, a tailor who rented a room in Earls Court. The five pounds, a letter written to the Uncle asking him to help Sohail, and the address were carefully tucked away in Sohails pocket. 

He arrived on a February afternoon rainy and dark. Half of his five pounds was spent on the taxi fare to Earl’s Court. An eccentric stranger, tailor-master Ghaffar, took him in during those early days. Ghaffar found Sohail a job and invited him to stay as long as he wanted.

Near Sohail’s place of work stood St. Martins School. Every evening, on his way home, he saw long queues of interesting-looking girls waiting outside. Unaware of what they were queuing for, Sohail joined them—and signed up for evening classes. Thus began his lifelong involvement with art.

The students around him produced incredible, lifelike drawings of the subject. Told to start, Sohail picked up grey and brown pastels and created a rough, shadowy mass. If he could have run away, he would have. He waited in trepidation as the teacher moved through the room, critiquing each student’s work. When she stopped silently behind him, he froze. Then he heard her say, “It’s marvellous.”

The Start of an Art Career

Encouraged by the teacher, Sohail pursued art in earnest. His career began to take shape under her guidance. A young Australian student also recognised the brilliance of his work. A full-time student, she shared everything she learned at art school with him, recommending books and discussing ideas he had no time to explore alone.

To support himself, Sohail worked various jobs, always choosing employment that left him maximum time for art. Money was often short, and he sought ways to supplement his income. The owner of a gift shop near Baker Street suggested he make postcard-sized paintings that could be sold as exclusive greeting cards for a pound each. Sohail returned with dozens of small works, but when he found the shop closed for lunch, he impulsively entered a nearby gallery. There, he showed his pieces and sold them for twenty pounds each. “Riches!” he recalled, running home with his pockets full of cash.

Sohail would spend hours painting in fast food restaurants, where one could sit undisturbed. He meticulously recorded these sessions, signing not just his name, but also the date, his blood pressure, the weather, and the location. Many paintings included shorthand notes like BK for Burger King or MC for McDonald’s.

The scars of his early life never left him, and dark motifs often appeared in his work. Once, while sketching on the Northern Line, a stately woman stared at his notebook. “Are you an artist?” she asked. When Sohail replied yes, she introduced herself as the Director of Melbourne Psychiatry Hospital. “Had your drawings come to my notice there,” she told him, “I would have immediately called for you to see me—and perhaps receive long-term treatment. But I am glad you are an artist, so you have a means for your catharsis.”

Artistic Success

Sohail’s first solo exhibition in England took place at the Hathorndon Gallery in 1976. He began to participate in group shows and summer exhibitions. Throughout this period, he continued to support himself with odd jobs, exhibit at galleries, and sell paintings along Bayswater Road.

It was there that Sohail was discovered by Laila Shahzada, who was exhibiting her own work in London. She bought several of his paintings and carried them back to Karachi, where they caught the attention of S. Ali Imam. Eventually, Sohail and Imam met, leading to regular exhibitions at the Indus Gallery.

It was only after his 1977 exhibition at the Indus Gallery that Pakistan saw his work in full. By the mid-1980s, Sohail’s fortunes began to turn. His paintings achieved both critical and commercial success, with rising demand in Pakistan and inclusion in collections in the UK, India, and the Gulf.

With acclaimed exhibitions across many countries, Sohail was featured in documentaries on Channel 4 and the BBC. In Britain, his work entered the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Art Council.

Later Life

Later in life, Sohail returned to Pakistan at the age of 72 to be closer to his family. Yet he continued to paint and exhibit. Nudity remained a recurring theme throughout his work, always approached with humour. Back in conservative, Muslim Pakistan, he sometimes added bikinis to the women in his paintings, blending satire with defiance.