Portraits by Guljee – Aga Khan

3 thoughts

1. Masterpieces that appear to capture the prevailing mood of the moment.

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2. The mosaic portraits of Mawlana Hazar Imam and Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah are made from lapis-lazuli (or lapis), a semi precious stone which has been mined in the Badakhshan province for thousands of years. The finest lapis has an intense blue colour, and is found in the Kokcha river valley of Badakhshan.

   Here is a comment made by Crimson East on his blog about how Gulgee carved his mosaics using lapiz

   …”I’ve said before that I know little of visual art. But I found his work on lapis lazuli portraits to be nothing short of phenomenal. Take, for instance, this portrait of the Agha Khan (spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims – the sect to which Gulgee belonged).

   He made many portraits of this kind. The medium used in these mosaics is blue lapis lazuli stones. Basically, Gulgee had to pick through thousands of pieces of blue stone, in varying colors and shapes and sizes. Then he had to arrange them in such a way that they formed a perfect portrait of a living person. He described it as being similar to a giant jigsaw puzzle. I cannot imagine a more fascinating artistic medium…”

   For the full blog please visit
   http://wrathofhephaestus.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/and-so-passes-gulgee/

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3. No match of these portraits. Gulgee was an excellent artist. No Match of Gulgee. But the most important are the personalities. Aga Khan III and Aga Khan IV. Real leader of Islam.

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