One enters the world of Sufis, mystics, poets and wanderers of Sindh when viewing the exhibition of watercolour paintings by Ali Abbas at the Artscene Gallery, Karachi. The exhibition is titled: “Haq Maujood — Sada Maujood” (God is present, always present).

They gather in Sindh at the Urs of their ancestors to dance, sing and play strange musical instruments and they live completely in a world of their own. The exquisite series of artworks that was inspired by the Sufis of Sindh, earned the artist enthusiastic acclaim and a gold medal from the judges of the Spanish Watercolour Painting Biennale held in Madrid, October 2014.

Abbas who was born in Hyderabad, Sindh, grew up with a keen sense of the mystic history of the region. He took pride in studying Sindh’s heritage, the birthplace of Sufism in the country, and he loved to sketch his surroundings and portraits of people who fascinated him.

Early in life he decided to make his career in art and after earning his Masters in fine art from Jamshoro University, he spent time with nomadic tribes that have traversed Sindh for centuries. His paintings of these ancient people uniquely created an understanding of their way of life and the roles customarily played by men and women.

Ali Abbas paints what he perceives as the dichotomy between the modern world and ages-old tradition

Abbas taught art in Karachi as well as in the art institutes of Sindh. He is currently heading the fine arts department of the Centre of Excellence, University of Mehran, from where good work is emerging. As an artist Abbas is a keen observer. He responds to his subject with feeling that is communicated to the viewer while exciting interest. Exploring his subject in depth, the artist has been participating in the Urs of the Sufis at such famed centres as Bhitshah, where the famed poet Shah Abdul latif is celebrated and in Sehwan, where the followers of Lal Shabaz Qalandar gather.

There he would sketch and absorb the faces and characters of the Sufi malangs and their followers, while they danced and made music seemingly detached from the modern world. It is also the meeting place and time for Sufis to meet their mentors, and the artist captures them sitting together with smoky woodfire burning, lost in contemplation.

Depicting his experience of these occasions, Abbas’s control of his tools is outstanding. Faces are created with individual expressions, there are discretely places bright splashes of colour that capture the eye of the viewer; brilliant touches bringing the wearer to the forefront amidst the mysterious, cloudy grey surrounds. The layering process of the surface is atmospheric, with touches of acrylic paint creating textures and shadows in the swirling barrier to the outside world. The work is motivated from the artist’s experience of exploring traditions and history, the connections between times past and present.

The artist creates a way of life that appears to have significance beyond the immediate time. One finds a visual directness establishing the artist’s individual perception; the abstraction surrounding the subject visually enriched with suggestions of tall minarets — a wide, unexplored historic saga. The artist is concerned with effects of colour and atmosphere as he is a creative artist who is fascinated by the continuation of atavistic and archetypal elements in a modern world.

Since his first solo exhibition in Karachi in 2002, his work has been shown and appreciated in other countries as well as in Pakistan. For all their abstract surroundings these paintings embody the mystic traditions of the Sufis. The artist’s style is rooted in observation and inspired by the mysticism and poetry of his homeland. Ali Abbas paints what he sees as the dichotomy between the modern world and tradition. In the international setting of the Spanish Biennale, his work offered a visionary aspect of mystic Sindh from his own artistic vision.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 25th, 2015

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