He started off painting portraits before turning to abstract art, basing his works on Islamic calligraphy.

He gained international acclaim, and was commissioned to paint several leaders, including US Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Pakistani leaders Zulifqar Ali Bhutto and General Ayub Khan.

Gulgee was a skilled naturalistic portrait painter who had enjoyed (according to Partha Mitter) "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.

[2][1] According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (see external links): "Gulgee's calligraphy paintings are abstract and gestural interpretations of Arabic and Urdu letters.

"[7] Beginning in the 1960s (if not earlier), Gulgee (along with his younger brother Agha Sadaruddin (a well-known filmmaker and photographer for Time and Life), also created sculptures, including bronze pieces that were (like so many of his paintings) calligraphic in form and inspiration, and sometimes specifically based on verses from the Quran.

[1] Guljee received many requests for his paintings internationally, from the Saudi royal family to the Islamabad presidency.

[3] 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.