Before 1959, as a portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family. In the early 1960s, he turned to abstract painting. Ismail Gulgee was a skilled naturalistic portrait painter who had enjoyed "lavish state support" and plenty of elite commissions in this capacity. Nevertheless, he was perhaps best known worldwide for his abstract work, which was inspired by Islamic calligraphy and was also influenced by the "action painting" movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Some people say that Elaine Hamilton was a strong influence on him. In both Islamic calligraphy and action painting, a high value is placed on the unity and energy of gestural flow. Gulgee's canvases were often quite large in the tradition of other action painters or abstract expressionists. Sometimes he used materials such as mirror glass and gold or silver leaf in his oil paintings. Therefore, in fact, they appeared to be mixed media pieces. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art : "Gulgee's calligraphy paintings are abstract and gestural interpretations of Arabic and Urdu letters. His sweeping layers of paint explore the formal qualities of oil paint while they make references to Islamic design elements." Beginning in the 1960s, Gulgee, also created sculptures, including bronze pieces that were calligraphic in form and inspiration, and sometimes specifically based on verses from the Quran. His son Amin Gulgee is also a famous artist.
Ismail Gulgee held his first painting exhibition in 1950. Gulgee's exhibitions have mostly been available to few people. Keeping that in mind and high public demand, an art gallery for Gulgee has been built in Clifton, Karachi, near South City Hospital and Sea View Karachi. Gulgee mostly painted for his own inspiration and vision. Although selected paintings are displayed at Clifton Art Gallery.
Hilal-e-Imtiaz Award in 1995 by the President of Pakistan
Murder
Ismail Gulgee, his wife Zarrin Gulgee and a maid were found dead by strangulation in their house on the evening of 19 December 2007 by his servants. Police suspect that all three had been murdered. While the bodies were found on the 19th, officials report that they had apparently been deceased for three days, leading to a speculative death date of 16 December 2007. Their bodies were found bound and gagged in separate rooms of the house. The initial cause of death for all three had been attributed to suffocation. According to press reports, his son reported that Gulgee's car and driver were missing and a foul smell coming from his parents' home. Gulgee was buried on the evening of 20 December 2007 in Karachi. Meanwhile, Gulgee's driver and another servant were arrested by the police as suspects and tried in court. The court case lingered on for many years. Finally, in May 2017, both of them were convicted and handed down life imprisonment sentences.
