Syed Ali Imam, Horse and Rider (1960): The Friday Find

2 - 9 October 2026
  • Syed Ali Imam, Untitled (Figure on a Horse), 1960

    Syed Ali Imam

    Untitled (Figure on a Horse), 1960

    "I have not seen your latest work, but if it is of the same quality as that you showed me a year ago the exhibition will be a good one. You have my permission to quote me on that."

     

    - Critic Eric Newton, 1958

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  • This week's Friday Find is a painting from 1960 by the artist and influential cultural figure Syed Ali Imam (1924-2002)....

    Photograph of Ali Imam from his Imperial Institute exhibition catalogue

    This week's Friday Find is a painting from 1960 by the artist and influential cultural figure Syed Ali Imam (1924-2002).

     

    Ali Imam was born in Narsinghpur and studied at the Nagpur School of Art, before continuing his studies at the J.J. School of Art in Bombay. He was Sayed Haider Raza's younger brother, and whilst Raza remained in Bombay following Partition, Imam migrated to Pakistan.

     

    In the late 1940s he was employed as an artist by the Zoological Survey of Pakistan, and later worked as a teacher at Lawrence College in Murree and Sadiq Public School in Baghdad ul Jadeed.

  • Imam was actively involved in the creative arts and was part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, as well as the...

    Pakistan Group London, Woodstock Gallery

    Imam was actively involved in the creative arts and was part of the Progressive Writers' Movement, as well as the Communist Party of Pakistan. His socialist views led to several arrests in the early 1950s and he remained under police surveillance.

     

    In 1956, Imam moved to London, studying at Saint Martin's School of Art from 1959-60 and Hammersmith College of Art from 1962-63. Whilst in the UK he was part of the Pakistan Group London, alongside Safiuddin Ahmed, Murtaza Bashir, Ahmed Parvez and Anwar Jalal Shemza.

  • A similar painting on the cover of Pakistan Quarterly, 1966 (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ali Imam, John Whibley catalogue (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Syed Ali Imam, Still Life on a Red Table, 1960 Collection of Grosvenor Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ali Imam with Gulgee at Indus Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Syed Ali Imam, The Ghee Maker, 1971 Collection of Grosvenor Gallery (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Ali Imam's work in the exhibition Group Dynamics—Collectives of the Modernist Period, 2021. Photo: Lenbachhaus, Simone Gänsheimer (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).

    A similar painting on the cover of Pakistan Quarterly, 1966

  • The painting depicts a man and horse in white against a textured green and blue background. The figures are sculptural and appear frozen - a characteristic often seen in Imam's work. His early landscapes are empty and silent, while his depictions of men and women are often completely without movement.

     

    Imam returned to Pakistan in the early 1970s, establishing Indus Gallery in Karachi in 1971. The gallery became an important hub for artists and creatives, exhibiting work by many significant South Asian painters. 

     

    We exhibited two paintings by Ali Imam in our exhibition South Asian Modern Art 2022, a 1970s oil 'The Ghee Maker, and Still Life on a Red Table from 1960.

     

    We touched upon this period in our Friday Find looking at the life of Wahab Jaffer. We’ll revisit Karachi in the 1970s another time, so we’ll leave it at that for now.

     

  • Syed Ali Imam, Untitled (Figure on a Horse), 1960

    Syed Ali Imam

    Untitled (Figure on a Horse), 1960

    Fact Sheet

     

    Syed Ali Imam
    Untitled (Figure on a Horse), 1960
    Signed and dated ‘IMAM 60’ lower right
    Oil on canvas
    67 × 30.7 cm
    26 3/8 × 12 1/8 in

     

    Provenance:
    Private British Collection
    London, Bonhams, Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, 2022
    Private British Collection

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