Zahoor Ul Akhlaq

Zahoor ul Akhlaq (4 February 1941 – 18 January 1999) was a pioneering artist from Pakistan. He is known for his approach to painting, sculpture, design and architecture, as well as his teaching at the NCA (National College of Arts) in Lahore.

Born in Delhi, India in 1941, he was the eldest in a family of 11 children.[2] His family moved to Lahore after the independence of Pakistan in 1947, eventually settling in Karachi, Pakistan. Akhlaq attended the Sindh Madrassah (now called Sindh Madressatul Islam University) as a young boy and went to study art in Lahore at the Mayo School of Arts (now called National College of Arts) back in 1958.[3] The well-known Pakistani painter Shakir Ali was teaching art there as a professor back then. Shakir Ali encouraged him greatly in his art studies. Zahoor graduated from this college in 1962 and he then started teaching at the same college in the Fine Arts Department. Shakir Ali heavily influenced him to learn the Cubist style and other modern ideas of that time. In 1971, he married Sheherezade Alam, a potter, and the couple had two daughters, Jahanara, (1974–1999), Nurjahan (born in 1979).