Art Industry in Pakistan..

[ghazi52]

World beyond the world opens at Chawkandi

Purified. – Photo by White Star
KARACHI: Examining artworks of a select group of artists gives us the indication that the difference between the palpable and the intangible, the perceived and the experiential, sometimes can be understood (read: measured, if you like) if we consider it as the ‘distance’ between them. By diminishing the distance, artists try and get the hang of the disparity between the two. This is what Donia Kaiser has tried to do in her latest body of work in an exhibition titled World beyond the World, which opened at the Chawkandi Art Gallery on Tuesday evening.

A Blue Tree – Photo by White Star
Before analysing Donia’s show, the viewer has to be familiar with the concept of darkness. It implies the state of not-knowing, what Hamlet calls the undiscovered land. No, there is no allusion to death here, in fact, the reference directly relates to life. With darkness comes the concept of light, its absolute opposite. But with Donia, the light is replaced by bold colours. These colours, especially blue, represent the barely known in a dark, dark world. Therefore, it’s these bold colours which have a language of their own, understandable language, even when there’s a human figure involved in the artwork.

A Family Snapshot – Photo by White Star
‘Red Chili’ (gouache on wasli paper) sets the series off with the notion that the experiential will take centre stage in the exhibition, ready to be unearthed. But with ‘Sun and the Moon’ (gouache and mud on wasli paper) things begin to move into another domain, a realm where what’s seeable morphs into a dream-like state with, ironically, more clarity. This observation is vindicated by a remarkable piece called ‘A Family Snapshot’ where the enveloping darkness exposes the light (of individuals) which finds it difficult to accept the bleak truth.

Donia’s technical masterstroke comes in the exhibit ‘A Blue Tree’ where she, with a delectable blend of craft and aesthetic sense, turns an inanimate object into a living being. I know trees can hardly be called inanimate, but what the artist has done is that she has imparted a posture and language to the tree which tells a story like a living object, a sad story at that.

 

[ghazi52]

Ajaz Anwar is a distinguished painter of Pakistan. He was a teacher at National College of Arts Lahore.

Ajaz Anwar

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The above Burzkashi painting is by Momin Khan.

 

[Dubious]

I remember we went to some exhibition in Islamabad and they had this display of teaching poor women how to make marble mosaic...Was lovely...they used to collect small pieces of marble at construction site and then glue them together to make large portraits!

When I went to Rome I saw alot of marble mosaic at the ancient ruins!

These are some I got off google:

 

[ghazi52]

Very Nice.....

 

[Dubious]

Very Nice.....

They sell expensive too

So I guess its like teaching a woman to fish (marble mosaic) she will earn a living (if she can find many marble pieces)

The course was free and specifically for teaching poor extra skills in art!

 

[ghazi52]

Thanks...

LAHORE COLORS
'Lahore is a city without comparison', proclaims a Punjabi saying. And through the ages this timeless place has continued to enchant residents and foreigners alike. Whether it was the English poet John Milton who sang of the ' Lahor of great Mogul' in his magnum opus, Paradise Lost or his itinerant countrymen who spoke of it with unconcealed admiration, whether they were Europeans or Asian explorers or adventurers, merchants or missionaries, pilgrims or plunderers, all found this heart of the Punjab a magic-place. Gateway to the subcontinent, the city suffered countless invasions but eventually invaders succumbed to its charm. From Greeks to Afghans, from Iranis to Central Asian Turks, from Arabs to the original local population, all mixed and merged, giving the place a colour and diversity unmatche4d by any other city of South Asia. To crown it all, it such great cities of the Muslim World as Granada, Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad.

Much has been written on and about Lahore. From poetic panegyrics in Persian, Punjabi and Urdu to books in English. Despite centuries of scholarly attention, it still remains full of new discoveries and dimensions unexplored. Perhaps the earliest book devoted to Lahore was by T.H. Thornton and J.L. Kipling, Lahore, published in 1870. The most consulted book however, is Lahore: its history, architectural remains and antiquities by Justice M.A. Latif, after whom a lane in the old town is named. Published in 1892, it is a work of detailed, if uneven, scholarship listing buildings and inscriptions, with emphasis on historical aspects. It fails to capture the dynamic impulse of Lahore life. Kanhiya Lal's Persian book is basically about the architectural additions - - with which he was involved - - by the British. While he mentions some of the chief families and the rituals of the three religious groups, he too is unable to capture the special aura of Lahore. A short but delightful book by H.R. Goulding Old Lahore, 1924, emanates genuine love for the city. Rudyard Kipling's several short stories and famous novel Kim, pay the finest creative tribute to this town. This most evocative body of work brings alive the life, of those who inhabited, and continue to inhabit, the labyrinthine lanes.

Dr. M. Baqir's Lahore: past and present, first published in 1952 and later updated, brings the city into the sixties. In 1961 Waliuallah Khan published Lahore and its important monuments. As the name suggests, it is an archaeologist's examination for the city. Lahore: the city within by Samina Quraeshi appeared in 1988, followed by F.S. Aijazuddin's Lahore: illustrated views of the 19th century in 1991. Other books on Lahore - - and there are several now - - are photographic essays on the city.

Lahore Colours, in contrast and complement to all the above, captures the creative continuum of five decades. The city has always afforded artists a continuing stimulus. This volume brings together many a rich response. Lahore Colours spill out once the gates of the walled city - - on the end paper - - are opened. These images initiate on into quarters which witnessed the rise and fall of many a dynasty, the imperial monuments where emperors and rajas enacted the drama of kingly power, war and peace, the grand havelis of the nobility where splendour and intrigue wove intricate patterns, the lanes frequented by poets and artists, walked by Sufis, scholars and commoners, and the narrow streets that follow not like a tedious argument, but have the vivacity of the colourful language Lahoris are known for.

Then there are works that ferry one across the Ravi river on to Sher Shah Suri's Grand Trunk Road to witness the stones of the empire.

And of a different aesthetic, outside walls, the colonial structures of yet another imperial import. Along the splendid Mall, the British stood one glorious hybrid after another. Each is testament to their expansionist vi9sion and amalgam of South Asia's multifarious cultural strands. All tampered with the Western binding, transmuting, transforming initiative.

With the sole exception of Miran Bakhsh's paintings all the works date from after independence, whether they were executed by foreigners who made Pakistan their home like Petman and Anna Molka Ahmad, or by visitors from abroad, like Sir Hugh Casson or by Pakistanis.

Miran Buksh has been included for several reasons. His work so rare to find, suddenly appeared before the public in some quantity very recently. It had neither been seen by the post-Independence generations till that date, nor reproduced before. An important painter, he was active during the British Raj. He did not look to romantic mythology or legend or Mughal twilight for inspiration, like his more famous contemporaries, Allah Bux and A.R. Chughtai. Instead his was a more realistic approach. He saw Lahore, unencumbered by historical preconception, with refreshing clarity. And he painted what he saw.

Page after page stands the young next masters and the established, verve and enthusiasm next experience and expertise. In each work a skill and distinct sense, sensitivity and sensibility is visible. Here, surely, is God's Plenty. This book, like the proverbial richness in a little room, is a small but feeling compliment to the city, the people of Lahore and their joie de vivre.

Lahore Colours is a critique, a commemoration, a celebration.
Ustad Miran Buksh
Moortanwaley


Habib Burkie


Raheel Akbar Javed


Sufi Waqar


Ustad Bashir-ud-Din


Naseem Hafeez Qazi


Anna Molka Ahmad


Naseer-ud-Din Sheikh


Sir Hugh Casson


Muhammad Aslam Minhas

 

[ghazi52]

USTAD BASHIR-UD-DIN (B. 11.07.1922)

Diploma in commercial design 1940, fine arts 1944, textile design 1946, miniature painting 1948, from Mayo school of Arts, Lahore. Taught painting and drawing at National College of Arts, Lahore, 1952-82. Participated in several national (1982, 1984, 1988, 1994) and local (1960, 1975, 1977) exhibitions including Duck Exhibitions including Duck Exhibitions, YMCA, Lahore 1941; held solo exhibition at Lahore 1992. Awarded Fellowship of the National College of Arts, 1994.

DAATA DURBAR, 1967
The narrow lane was packed with moved and moving men, young and old. Bearded and shaven and moustached, turband, capped and bareheaded. People with bundles and bedding on their shoulders, on heads. They had come several hundred miles from the remote village and distant towns to spend the next new days here. People who had brought their young to be blessed, who had come to pray long rights and who knew all would be provided.
Drummers and tongs-players, covering-carrying groups were led by youth who danced and pranced and whirled. They quickened as the drum quickened. They had come to pay homage, to bow their heads in gratitude. There were some in green with bangles on their hands and chains on their ankles who churned the air with their long hair and the vigorous tossing of their heads. Groups of aspiring Sufis chanted Allah-Hu in unison. Some sported empty milk cans, others plastic bags in the hope of filling them at the Langer-khana, charity kitchen.

On both sides of the lane the small shops were bright with mercury lights. The wares glittered and gleamed: munds, of the flowers and petals, of pickles and preserves and silver foiled, mithai of sugar cakes and sweet assortments, garlands in rows, attar in vials and kohl in mainature phials. Shops blaring folk songs, encomiums to the Prophet (pbuh) and Qawwalis. Gates where tandoor chapattis were being distributed without charge and shops spreading out their books. On the ground beads and bangles sellers, ring hawkers who engraved names while one waited and trinket peddlers. Out on the main roads cauldrons of oil steamed and sizzled tens of delicacies. There were clay pots and pottery heaped in hay. There were fortune-telling parrots and cheep toy vendors. In the green belt of the old city the Ferris-wheel turned, the circus tent was pitched and amusement stalls had come up. The sacred and the secular mixed.

The shrine and the mosque had been draped in lights. Inside a more reverent crowd queued to touch the marble window of the tomb. The coverings shrunk here and slithered like green snakes, over the heads of he devotees, as they were pulled at the other end and deposited next the grave to the saint. Thousands sat on straw mats, praying, meditating, reading the Quran, reciting verses in praise of the Prophet, the saint.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

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[ghazi52]

Naseem Hafeez Qazi

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[rockstar08]

i do sketching and Painting too ..................Seriously i do..

 

[ghazi52]

Good.
Show some of your work.

 

[ghazi52]

 

[ghazi52]

CollaborArt on the canvas

Sohail brings out an edgy side through his bold subjects while Rafi’s abstract artwork adds a sophisticated dimension to their canvases. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

ISLAMABAD:
History is in the making in the contemporary art world and two renowned Pakistani painters are to be credited with it. Tassaduq Sohail and Riaz Rafi, both based in Karachi, have collaborated to paint 24 canvases together for the “first ever joint-solo” exhibition in the world. Titled ‘Inimitable Consilience’, the show is scheduled to open at Gallery 6 ,on January 23.

According to Dr Arjumand Faisel, the curator of the gallery, the exhibition is unique because while seasoned artists have collaborated for artworks in the past, they have not tried at it before in the country or elsewhere in the world.

The exhibition depicts an amalgam of the artists’ distinct styles and artistic sensibilities. Sohail has painted oil-on-canvas figurative forms in soft and subtle colour tones, offset by Rafi’s bright acrylics. The images present an alternate dimension — a visual conversation between two creatively-driven individuals.

The faces are expressive, coloured in transient tones and outlined in bold and smudgy black contours. Drawing inspiration from within, Sohail brings out an edgy, confident and playful side through his bold subjects, while Rafi’s abstract artwork adds a surrealistic and sophisticated dimension to their collective canvases. The paintings exude a graffiti-esque feel, evocative and visually-appealing for their multi-layered treatment. Complementing each other’s art philosophy, the unlikely duo has whipped up a peculiar recipe for art lovers in the capital.

The two create a nuanced balance of symbols, colours and symmetry in their work. The combination of their individual palates is toned down in some places and gives off an almost psychedelic vibe in others. The colours seem to pour naturally from one image to the next. Faisel shared that the exhibition has already aroused curiosity and anticipation among people. “This association is expected to present masterpieces in the upcoming show,” he said.

Sohail and Rafi have been close friends for more than three decades and their synchrony is evident in their work. Sohail returned to the country after spending about four decades in England and has also exhibited his artworks internationally. Rafi has exhibited his pieces extensively within Pakistan, particularly in Karachi. The idea of working together came when Sohail doodled on a catalogue of Rafi’s exhibition. The outcome was artwork that reflected the distinct yet harmonised styles of both painters.

This surprised both of them and Rafi convinced Sohail that they both should undertake the adventure of painting the same canvas and hold a solo show. Connecting on a spiritual level, they have employed different approaches and colour palates and the resulting canvases speak of their collective imagination. Faisel underlined that the most discussed example of collaborative paintings was that of American painters Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat in the 1980s. However, even they had a three-way collaboration with Italian artist Francesco Clemente to paint 12 canvases.
CollaborArt on the canvas – The Express Tribune

 

[ghazi52]

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