Female painters of Pakistan have played a significant role in shaping the evolution of this genre over a span of almost seven decades. Well before the birth of Pakistan, painters like Amrita Sher-Gil, Zubeida Agha and Anna Molka Ahmed were established names, despite the circumstances and atmosphere that were not favourable for art as a serious concern.

Later, owing to better opportunities, many female artists took admission in art institutions; however, many of these left the profession after their marriage. But there were a few who took this challenge and established their identities as full-time artists, working hard to prove their own point of view as a painter.

They adopted various techniques, styles and themes for the expression of their imagination and imagery. Among the prevailing ideological strains, feminism became an important one that informed their self-expression.

The painting exhibition “Counter Narrative — Redefining Feminism” with 30 artworks by two female artists; Nahid Raza and Sumera Jawad created resonance in Islamabad as the Nomad Art Gallery arranged this show.

Nahid Raza and Sumera Jawad present the counter narrative in this show

Raza, with her allegories related to women empowerment and derived from history, presented the dynamic female characters which emerge in consuming colours to challenge clichéd dogmas. She portrays the woman as a protagonist of stories of ecstasy and fertility, and sensuality to spiritualism. She, with her brush and colours seems to be intent on recording every facet of the female from Eve to an ordinary woman. The artist personifies woman as an embodiment of faith, love, determination, commitment and sacrifice.

Untitled, Nahid Raza. Photos by the writer.

She uses flowers, birds or fish as symbols that carry mythological or historical linkage to express the hidden or the untold. Some of her paintings propose postures and attire similar to Egyptian goddesses.

With a conceptual approach and thematic visual idiom, Raza exhibited her frames in this show that emphasised on her theoretical standards which she has been known for throughout her career.

Jawad is a painter with an ideology. She took the process of painting as a journey full of explorations and astonishment. She started off with an approach that could be titled as feminist, first when she illustrated realistic portraits of women and later when she explored the myths and metaphors extracted from the fables and mythologies of the classical world, from Europe to Egypt and from the Indus Valley to other ancient parts of South Asia.

The artist investigated, especially during her doctoral research, the image of woman and its evolution under diverse socio-cultural patterns and religious influences. This visual journey started with the renderings of the goddess or the demigoddess which later encompassed the female-saints and then reached out to the notorious and sinful feminine characters.

Ishtar, Leda, Athena, Kali, Durga, Sarasvati, Vishkanniya or a Nirtaki captures her frames with authoritative shapes and captivating colours and inks.

Fascinatingly, Jawad relates all these characters to her own psychological existence and on occasion, she adds a self-portrait or a silhouette in her paintings for this purpose. The recent “Rose Series” signifies the eternal relationship of the female and the rose.

The sensuality, romance, and the multilayer softness in deep-pink colour of the rose, not only incarnates the female characteristics physically but advocates a level where the fragrance of a flower stands for emotional delight. In the series Jawad also implied the male image in a few of her paintings, to acknowledge the importance and value of the opposite gender even in the most segregated concept of feminism.

It is an exciting observation that whenever the female painters depict women as their subject, they like to portray, not only the physical appearance, but also the concealed persona of the woman, empathetically as well as unconsciously.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 26th, 2014