KARACHI, July 25: It is heartening to see that miniature painting, for many years a forgotten art form, has been revived in a big way and, what is no less heart-warming, by a number of young artists. Unlike the miniaturists across the Wagah border – who are fewer in number – our artists have not stuck to traditional subjects and characters. They have taken up modern themes and contemporary dramatis personae, without compromising on the intrinsic beauty and delicateness that are the hallmarks of our miniatures.
The week-long exhibition at Chawkandi Art, which opened on July 23, is a case in point but the three young artists, participating in the group show, are very different from each other in their approach and style alike. Incidentally, they are all graduates from the National College of Arts, Lahore and have specialised in miniature painting.
The cotton hat wearing Amna Hashmi’s six paintings are akin to illustrations from children’s books, but they are very much in keeping with the norms of miniature paintings. Her idiom and her characters are western, though she will not be entirely in agreement with you if you say so. When told that the little girl in one of her paintings is a blonde hence she is not one of us, Hashmi blurts out “So what, there are blondes among Pakistanis too.”
Referring to the characters in her paintings, she says that they populate her stories. She began to write them before she began to paint but the stories have, for reasons best known to her, remained unpublished. Some of her characters are from what she calls “alternate worlds”. A wolf howling at the moon is a part of the Western folklore.
“In my childhood I wanted to be a comic book artist,” says Ms Hashmi, whose one painting worth Rs 85,000 (no other work is more than Rs 40,000 in the group show) was bought by a non-resident Pakistani on the opening day.
Amna Hashmi says she is inspired by Persian miniatures rather than Mughal miniatures, the latter she insists are more detailed and, therefore, more realistic. Her ideal, or shall we say idol, is Mahmoud Farshian, an Irani miniaturist. “I am in love with his colours and lines alike,” exults Hashmi.
Abdul Rahim, a native of Gilgit, now teaching at Karachi’s Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, specialises in doing larger miniatures. His largest at the show was 10 inches by 8 inches. But he has done miniatures which go up to 50 inches by 27 inches. There is an element of Sufism in his works and the recurrent theme in his paintings is pain. “Pain is universal and pain is cathartic,” he claims. He points at the painting where Lord Buddha is seen deeply engrossed in meditation. “Buddha conquered pain very much early in life,” claims Abdul Rahim.
The most interesting works on display are the 13 miniatures of Amjad Ali Talpur. They are like pieces of jigsaw puzzle put together. The artist from Tando Jam, who teaches miniature painting at the art department of Mehran University, has a highly skilled hand, a fact acknowledged by no less a person than the seasoned artist cum art teacher Nahid Raza, who makes it a point not to miss exhibitions of young painters.
Talpur claims that he draws his characters and inspiration from The Padshahnama. So, while his technique is not traditional, his characters are, which makes him different from his equally young colleagues.
The group show at Chawkandi will continue till the 31st.
KARACHI, July 25: It is heartening to see that miniature painting, for many years a forgotten art form, has been revived in a big way and, what is no less heart-warming, by a number of young artists. Unlike the miniaturists across the Wagah border – who are fewer in number – our artists have not stuck to traditional subjects and characters. They have taken up modern themes and contemporary dramatis personae, without compromising on the intrinsic beauty and delicateness that are the hallmarks of our miniatures.
