1
The Art Writ verses the Wor(l)d
One of the true great artists in the history of art (of East and West) - - Dr. David R. Luisi of the University
of Notre Dame in 1968 proposed (s.v.p. revealed) that he is the bolder reincarnation of Giotto, the sun
also rises from the South), Paris Biennial Laureate, the Syyed Mohummed Jawaid Iqbal Geoffrey was
born in Chiniot on January 1, 1939. He is, in the tremendous tradition of da Vinci, El Greco,
Caravaggio, Goya and Picasso (‘It took me seventy years to draw like a child’) self-taught as an artist.
Greatness, counters the posh, the pompous and rebuts the ‘ pull’.. Verily, it transcends believe-it-or-nuts
gurus, deep-pocket ustaads and subverts ustaadiyawnn. ( greased-mechanics consisting of megamachinations). God is the Sole mentor of superlative innovation.
Nonetheless, Geoffrey is the first Asian who held, while still in his twenties, well-merited
professorships of Fine Art at four important American Universities. Moreover, his powerful,
provocative, unforgettable and poignant yet forensic postmodern artworks are included in all the
topmost and notably prominent collections of the 20th century art.
Indubitably, Geoffrey is one of the original pioneers of Conceptual and precursor of post-Conceptual art
processing on both sides of the Suez. In fact, he is the proponent of ultra modern neo-miniature painting,
evidenced, as for example, by the acquisition of a 1955-58 mixed media artwork accomplished in
Montgomery - - now Sahiwal - - (10”x 14”, i.e.,’ legal-size’, on glazed wasli paperboard, fabricated
employing household enamel-paint really glazed with gold powder) by The Tate Gallery, London in
1962 for its permanent collection. Bedazzled Sir John Rothenstein described it as the most beautiful
painting in the entire permanent collection.
Art needs no crutches nor indulges yesmanship nor shepherds sycophancy (which are habit-forming for
the art-claimant. Its most important engine and ingredients are courage, determination, integrity and
legerdemain + knowhow. This contrasts with false claims of an Aryan artist with Hindu parents who
made a functional fool of the second rate art critics and theiur supporters and patrons, taking the
cultureless lot for a dire ride, falsely claiming that his great grandmother was Jewish (and so he was
Semitic) migrated from Basra in Iraq. Blunt Geoffrey m inquired point-blank and riposted: “Was the
Kuma Sutra translation not available in Iraq?”.
It is difficult for the Ess(!)tablishment to lick its wounds so it perpetuates what it portended and what it
portrays - - “Lies are dyed as legends”, he maintains, “that sanctifies and juggernauts abuse of merit for
the time being by the vested interests of cultural Gangadins!”. Bona fide Merit does not entertain
manipulation.
Art is the salutary suzerainty of aesthETHICS. Behold and Be Cause!! Art is not the rite way. The artist
is an oughtsider transcending the common collocations as well as crowds of Outsiders, outré-mongers
Insiders and countless inbetweenties (neologism of Geoffrey).
Geoffrey earned meritorious degrees in Economics, Law, Human Rights and Aesthetics from the
Government College, Lahore; Punjab University Law College, Harvard Law School (where his neothesis
polinating the Bill of Rights was designated as ‘Honor Paper’. He, incidentally asserts : ‘Justice like art
, is committed, regardless of the odds, to attaining Equity and urging Proportionality. Injustice must be
jettisoned for the sake of sea change!), Read University, University of Illinois, Sangamon State
University. He also studied ‘Methods of Art Criticism and Connoisseurship’ at doctoral level at the Fogg
Art Museum under Professor Seymour Slive, and amazed Harvard University pundits with the originality
of his research, stretching the surfaces and supplementing narrative on Ingres. Jafree also stunned the
Boston Brahmins by implanting a revolutionary new (first ever harvested at Harvard) theory of Justice:
JUSTICE IS ABSENCE OF DICTATORIAL PREROGATIVE!
In the United Kingdom, Geoffrey became the first artist (originating from the South) whose work was
included in the national collections of the Realm. Her Majesty the Queen commended [1962] him as ‘the
Arts Counsel of Great Britain’. Recently, he was chosen for The Herbert Read Gold Medal which will
be conferred, Deo volenti (InShallah), during the Spring of 2016.
2
Her Majesty the Queen attended his show in Kensington in 1962. Geoffrey’s first solo show in New York
[1963] was profusely applauded by the Time magazine (“Young Virtuoso”) as well as the New York
Times. Marcel Duchamp and Clement Greenberg were impressed and became his ought-standing
aficionados. Grand Central Moderns, New York published [1963] a monograph on his art authored
enthusiastically by Dr. H.W. Janson (author of The History of Art) , Sir Herbert Read, Dr. A.S. Alley
and Professor Norbert Lynton. Picasso and Joseph Cornell, John G. Powers and Harry N. Abrams
became his fans. So did stunningly-beautiful Kim Novak. Geoffrey and Kim were neighbours in Chelsea
during 1964.
The States of Illinois and Washington have officially published monographs commemorating Geoffrey
pursuant to the State sovereign authority, in 1969 and 1970 respectively. These authoritative Monographs
are available from the Library of the Congress, Washington DC, The New York Public Library, Archives
of Tate Britain and The British Library, London. One of these may be consulted at the Watford Public
Library in its Reference Section.
What eventually matters - - is not hoopla; bang-bang or mustard-minding stunts - - but honest-togoodness quality, its bona fide recognition by scholar-experts, all-encompassing appreciation, not inter
netted-noises or narcissism generated or duplicitous news (sans substance) catered by know-all
Lnumber-Duo rite-makers and cash-and-curry cracks + specialists in fermenting factotums and harvesting
glamorous tidbits. Geoffrey refers to the riff-raff in the art world very bluntly (“Vitriol is their Mobil-oil”
he maintains and “recent vintage semi-illiterate nouveau riche patronage their work - - which is mostly
worthless used canvases - - for the placebo effect on their meritless and damaged egos!”
The Who’s Who in America, recognizing the precocious and extraordinary merit included his
biography while he was only 21 and visiting Pacific Palisades, California as the prestigious ‘Huntington
Hartford, II Fellow’. In1965 he won the Paris Biennale Award to immense public acclaim and
widespread media coverage in all France. Consequently, the renowned French Minister of Culture,
Andre Malraux, offered him citizenship of France which he gratefully declined.
Sir Herbert Read described Geoffrey as an “Astonishing Phenomenon” and in 1964, dedicated his
celebrated lecture at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut: “For Iqbal Geoffrey Who Has Entered
into an Exclusive Destiny”.
Iqbal Geoffrey is fond of the axiom which he often adopts as tenets. He reminds us that Almighty Allah
commands in the Holy Quran, : 53: “Man can get what he strives for.” Socrates is known to have said:
“The secret of change is to focus all your energy on building the new, not fighting the old”. That brings to
mind George Bernard Shaw: “Progress is Impossible Without changE!” Quaid-e-Azam Mohummed Ali
Jinnah emphasized, “I don’t believe in taking right decisions; I take decisions and make them right”.
How apropos! However, some caution emanated from Confucius who warns about mediocrity “When the
wise man points at the moon; the idiot looks at the finger”. ‘To live is the greatest thing in the world.
Most People just exist, that is all”, observed Oscar Wilde. Artworks by Geoffrey are breath-taking;
nonetheless, developing continually sua sponte and thereby transforming us for the better.
Recently [however, it is yet to be publicly launched], the Government of Pakistan (Ministry of Culture)
published a commemorative Coffee-table Festschrift, a Monograph (with refreshing contributions from
world’s top art historians) designed by Will Colin - - one of the best graphic designers in Europe.
Formidable Brian Sewell (of The Evening Standard) describes this as ‘the most magnificent art book to
come out of the South!”.
Dr. AQK is also authoring a comprehensive monograph on him along with essays by prominent
aestheticians. (The Chief Justice of Gambia) Ali Chowhan has proposed that the United Nations publish
a monograph on him. And Raza Rumi (( he is the brilliant son of former Chief Justice of Pakistan,
Sheikh Riaz Ahmed who has been a law classmate (Jafree topped in law examinations and broke all
records in Jurisprudence, yet declined Gold Medals protesting nascent dictatorship of Sir Ayub Khan,
BA, GCMG who was his ardent fan) l957-59 )) has just completed [August, 2015] the editing of a
penetrative and illuminating book, titled: “Until Iqbal GeoffRey!” : “A-Gainst Iqbal Geoffrey”.
Que Sera Sera constitutes neither road map nor track for outstanding intellect. Geoffrey has appealed to
the finest in the highest manner. He acknowledges that the crawling insects and slithering worms (yeni k:
keera-muccoraws ) - - t(!)ail-blazers of semi-illiteracy and Negative Sum Mentality (vile but prolific
nabobs of negativism ) resist art because it condemns Unjust Enrichment. They - - being the ego-tripping
standard bearers of towels and underwear - - (“keera-moccoraws” is the novel neologism - - off
3
polished Penglish - - implicated by the only other Paris Biennial Laureate from the subcontinent, Syed
Sadequain Naqvi, (who is related by blood to Geoffrey-ul-Bukhari-al Naqvi) operating conspicuously as
Classified worms and Display insects. Perhaps the slip has been that Geoffrey is not hooked on incensed
Rooh-e Afza and he declined to become a judge of the Supreme Court justice in 1980 (two chief justice
of Pakistan flunked law examinations in 1959 when Geoffrey topped the lot!). He publicly announced
that all elevations and high appointments must be solely per open merit sans networking, advertised
nationally and thorough public vetting including Lie Detection tests. Patronage ands pelf-pandering are a
non-no. The President of Pakistan regretted that he could not run Pakistan that way. Now, business being
as usual, time is running out on Pakistan.
“The artist accomplishes what you do not expect from art…” insists Syyed Iqbal Geoffrey, “an artist
looks into the future and makes it visible retrospectively!” Those who are blessed with enlightenment
do not need the limelight nor are infatuated with hype or highlighting. They don’t pine for phony-pricey
lollypops or cozying crutches of/f pseudo-clout. Art boldly rejects mediocrity as well as sycophancy.
Art can make a difference (‘…but not of life and death’ winks Geoffrey) which is never obsequious
towards making a scene or worshipping the rising suns or sons. “The worst enemy of creativity is selfdoubt”, so summed up lovelorn Sylvia Plath.
“One who cannot discern his self-worth is extinguished by God!”, wrote Imam Ali ES, nearly fourteen
centuries ago when English language was nonexistent. The Righteous Caliph Omer (R.A) remarked that
“hypocrisy is the least forgivable of all sins”, adding that one who appeases a wrong is worse than the
wrong-monger. In the words of Martin Luther King, “One who accepts evil is as much involved in it as he
who helps to perpetrate it.” Obviously, worthy artists of consequence exemplify and remit love-withequanimity and tranquility.
Beauty is like justice and charity in the “I” of the beholder, Geoffrey has pontificated) Eye that sees
beyond sea change and overshadows, then transcends Que Sera Sera. That remains artists’ intrinsic
impulse, dependable priority and divinely conferred Special Appointment. Verily, a very unique and
uncommon assignment.
Vision accessorizes good, it does not pine nor envisages goods. To quote Confucius: “The hardest thing
of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially when there is no cat”. Great art significantly prepresents!
Art of consequence invariably attracts and sustains what it desires; becomes what it excepts; and reflects
what it reverberates, to wit: 2-B or not 2B is not the question any longer. Art of Geoffrey defies
categorization; compelling without any repelling Among his other magnificent outreaches, in deeds,
versatile voyager of fertile vision Geoffrey has conferred six knighthoods. And half a century ago boldly
cancelled one ahead of Her Majesty the Queen which practically everyone thought could not be done.
Sir Bryan Robertson hailed him as ‘the best artist ever to emerge from the Indian continent’. Sir
Norbert Lynton of the Royal College of Art rhetorically asked: “Is there anyone in Modern Art to match
Iqbal Geoffrey?”
At his last one-man show [1965], - - surprisingly a sellout - - nearly half a century before The Bogus
Bubble (that Geoffrey bluntly despised and resisted openly : there is no such thing as Indian or Pakistani
art; there is just art, mostly what we are being catered is non-art, solemnly he derides) - - from a London
commercial gallery, Drian Galleries, Sir David Sylvester purchased four paintings( executed by Geoffrey,
two acquired for the permanent collection of the Arts Council of Great Britain (as it was then known) .
Geoffrey has expanded plus extended art, and made his art-dossiers alive and lively which inspire
reliability and resilience . The foremost art critic in the South, [QM], aptly summaries that he is the most
intelligent persona in the history of mankind, in the same sense as, once upon a time, Marcel Duchamp
had been.
Art exudes numerous differing determinations and different dimensions. It chisels rather than chase
space. More concealing than Revealing. Less being the new mores, mores that do not conjure chicanery!
George Orwell enriched us with the warning that during times of universal deceit, telling the truth
becomes a revolutionary act. The further a society drifts away from the truth the more it will despise
those that tell the truth.
4
Art does not consort the trodden nor adopts the untrue Even when not loud, it is not toothless. Its bytes
are its bite. That, inter alia, upfronts the iconic suggestion made over two centuries ago) of proverbial
{Punjabi poet Bulley Shah: It all culminates into dot com: Gall ek nuktey which muckdii aye…
Routing trails Art in order to demonstrate the Proper Way which pulsates the Righteous Path (Sarat-e
Mustaqueem which is not like the crows, mullahs (fatwa fetish) and the plains ‘The Other(s)’ ‘fly’ and
routinely flutter, in a perverse straight-line) averting pugg-dandies (short-cuts) and condemning
wayward plat(e) forms.
E.g., Truth shall make you (Ja)Free!
- Barrister DR. SHANA SADIQ, LL.B. Honours (Durham), M.A. (Columbia), Ph.D. (University of
Tokyo); Admitted in New York, Attorney at Law.
- Barrister SYYED AIMA IQBAL, B.B.A. Honors (Houston), LL.B. Honours (Birmingham),
LL.M., M. Phil (University of London), Ph.D., (UK); Of the Hon’ble Gray’s Inn, Barrister at Law.
5
Please Sea Change:
by Countess Carolina
Astute, knowledgeable and avid Iqbal Geoffrey’s - - “a superior Intelligence” per the Illinois Supreme
Court [1982] - - forthcoming One-Artist exhibitions include the Gallery of the National College of Art ,
Sept-October 2015 + The Koel Gallery, Karachi (Sept-Oct, 2015) and the Art Gallery of the Foundation
of the Museum of Modern Art (FOMMA), DHA-6, Karachi (Pakistan) commencing on 6th. November
2015 .The Sarat Initiative (Spring, 2016) and The Lahore Museum of Art (après Spring 2016) afterwards
these art Shows will travel several significant art museums in the East and the West. His last shows were
All-Museum-Expositions at the Johnson Art Museum (Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.) and The Everson
Art Museum in Syracuse which were praised unanimously as the best art exhibitions in the entire United
States of America during 1971 and 1972 respectively.
Story must be narrated that in 1961 great art historian and editor Denys Sutton recommended to the Arts
Council of Great Britain the artwork of Geoffrey then being shown in Mayfair. The Purchasing
Committee could not believe merely thirty Guineas for an outstanding oil painting; the Gallery had
suggested a three figure price which Geoffrey declined. Geoffrey’s approach is egalitarian, not lack
luster or lackadaisical and deep-pocket oriented (as is rampant among the ‘ In’ crowd of crows, sounding
sensitive and succulent to the vulnerable and the discrete).
The primary purpose of art is to tell the tale, to tend and travail truth. Denys Sutton predicted [circa
1961] that “A day will come when Geoffrey’s artworks will replace highest-denomination currencynotes!”. Until that time no artist of Indian origin was shown in major London art galleries. That rusted
lock was broken by Geoffrey. In one year Geoffrey managed to hold twelve one-person shows in Mayfair
and Knightsbridge. His first Retrospective at age 21 was described by The Times, London as
“Distinguished”. Thereafter his Silence remained his art. The breaking of that silence, or changing the
said gear and brake will take stages and time. Albeit when the National Gallery was blessed with his
Liquid Sculpture (some nascent irrigation) and he decreed it open 7/24, i,e, round the clock; the London
Times mentioned [1985] Iqbal Geoffrey : “Never since Leonardo da Vinci has there been an artist of his
talent and genius for art!!”
By the way Iqbal (for day to day life purposes he transliterates his family name - - since 1967 - traceable for over fourteen centuries, as ‘ Jafree’) has also (he is the only artist ever recommended by Sir
Phillip Hendy (Director of the National Gallery, London) and Lord Goodman for Arts Council of Great
Britain Award which he received, first ever young artist so chosen, in 1968), been CFO/ Chief
Accountant of the British Lion Limited (1968-69), London ; Human Rights Officer of the United
Nations, N.Y., (1966-67) and Chief Accountant of the Embassy of Kuwait (1975-76) in London. He
advocated, drafted, lobbied for, got passed the Ombudsman systems in the United Kingdom as well as
Pakistan without any remuneration or expectations. He declined offer of knighthood in Lord Wilson’s
Retirement Honours List branding that as “too little and too late”.
changE is more important than vested or self-interest. People being much more significant than persons
and personalities. That message is the massage!
A citizen of the world, his London chambers is at 14 Old Square, Lincoln’s Inn. Over the last 55 years,
he has persistently been , exceptionally bold, practicing law and striving for fructification of public
interest and openly airing ecological concerns (vox populi) in thirty three common law jurisdictions
spread over four continents; and he does all this without charging any fees or remuneration whatsoever.
6
The Hon’ble Lahore High Court describes him as “A world class public interest lawyer”. The State of
Pakistan ex rel the Government of Pakistan rates him as “A living legend”.
He is soft-soft, not harsh; striving for making a difference, not stirring an upheaval (one exception may
well be the greed-smitten justice-busters/money-launderers for whom the trees are eager and pinning
preyfully). “Learn the rules like a professional, so that you can break them like an artist” (Picasso) rings a
bell in terms mysterious, a dream ( dream is not that you see while sleeping. It is something that does not
let you sleep!). Break the conventions but keep the Commandments. All-encompassing and irrepressible
Geoffrey has even dared to invent and mint The Eleventh Commandment:
Thou Shall Not Commit Snobbery.
His art is cumulative, bio-organic, ever-changing (suo motu, of its own accord, cutting edge yet
somewhat ahead of time) and verily very willing. Codicils of the nearer future, so to speak. All this (and
more) being not about art and viewer (or viewer and art), as alienating singularities but rather relays a
thriving oneness. Here, at long last is the artist who is turning you into an artist,. This had never been
implemented before.
He proclaims that suchlike art is accommodative and participatory - - stemming a new cordiality in
which “art and you combine; you democratically jump into the quantum canvas in order to nourish a
new fusion; you add an exclusive colour, so that art becomes a cordiality which energizes a unique
collegiality.
Art is is a God-given virtue and a different kind of ‘;value’. Best of intentions do not genera art. Art
cannot be taught. Besides it takes more than competence and no less knowhow.
Thus, in effect and fior all intents and purposes,, all art reflects ‘collage-orientation’ to a certain extent.
Beyond that it is like playing Beethoven before barren buffaloes. Without thoughtful recipients or
appropriate audience, art iteration is seldom complete. The process supersedes the narrative,
complementation, the product and its making. Try ought truth for a change of pace, not as a face saving
device.
“Being a human being is a great honour for any creature. In this respect Responsibility as well as an
obligation to realize and highlight Vox Populi, common good are divinely conferred, he humbly
declares. One of the greatest judges of the United States , Justice William A. Thomas of Ohio
acknowledged (while Geoffrey, then 30, was a professor in Cleveland where more than half the CSU
students forcefully petitioned that he become the President of the University so’ they’ did not renew his
contact! So much for pedagogic magnanimity + serenity versus insanity and negative sum mentality):
“Iqbal Geoffrey has accomplished things in life that we pined to do, but could not dare!
Holy Prophet Mohummed, peace be upon him, (an ancestor of Geoffrey) calibrated that a nano-moment
utilized for the sake of justice is superior than numerous years of worshipping and prayers. The Holy
Prophet further calibrated and manifested that:
;
==========
The ink of a scholar is worthier than the blood of many-splendoured martyrs