Ustad Allah Bux

Ustad Allah Bakhsh ( 18 October 1978) was a Pakistani painter and calligrapher who was actively involved in Punjabi cultural aesthetics and classical landscape paintings throughout his career. He produced his work in British India, and after the partition, in Pakistan. Most of his work revolves around Punjabi folklore, as well as traditional tales of Persian and Hindu mythology.

The recipient of prestigious national literary award, the Pride of Performance in 1963, he is primarily recognized for depicting tragic love stories of Sohni Mahiwal, Heer Ranjha and Tilism-e-Hoshruba, an epic story of Amir Hamza, a legendary Persian adventurer. His work sometimes also depicted the traditional festivals of Punjab. Some of the work he produced after independence was acquired by the National Art Gallery.

Life and background He was born around 1895 in Wazirabad, British Punjab, into a Punjabi family. He spent most of his life in Lahore. At first, he attended a Madrasa to study Urdu and Arabic, however, he subsequently left school. His father was a house painter who used to work at Mughalpura Railway Workshop.

He moved back to Lahore in 1919 and worked as a commercial artist at Paisa Akhbar in Urdu Bazaar (Lahore) until 1922. Later in 1924, Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir offered him a job as a court-painter, but he declined the offer. He worked at the court of Bhupinder Singh of Patiala from 1937 to 1938. After he left the court, he created a landscape painting of a woman living in a village along with her kids which became one of his prominent paintings.

During the last years of his life, he lost most of his eyesight due to cataract. Many people consider him one of the pioneer artists of modern landscape and figurative painting in the early years of Pakistan.

Death and legacy He died in Lahore on 18 October 1978 and is buried in the Muslim Town cemetery. In 1991, Pakistan Post issued a commemorative postage stamp to honor Allah Bakhsh in its 'Painters Of Pakistan' series.