KARACHI: How many times does it happen that execution of an idea gets totally eclipsed by the idea itself? Very rarely. Some of the artworks on display at a group show, which opened on Tuesday at the Grandeur Art Gallery, speak volumes for the participating artists’ fertile imagination.

The good thing is that there seems to be no ‘artistic air’ about the painters; they call them as they see them.

The most astounding piece on view is Naushad Alam’s painting in which the idea or concept takes the viewer by surprise in such a way that technique takes a back seat. The marked feature of the artwork is that no object used in it is novel, yet when combined together, the painting comes across as something that reinvents a tried and tested subject.

The artwork is about a woman on a swing with a brick wall in the background. The viewer cannot see the upper half of her body, but the shadow of the woman, which is supposed to reveal her identity, further obfuscates the issue in an almost philosophical manner. The wall behind the swing becomes a big, strong metaphor for blockage or disruption of an activity — an activity that only the woman on the swing can identify.

Dilawar Khan’s landscape. / Photos by White Star

Naushad doesn’t stick to one subject and deals not just with issues but with tributes as well. For example, his take on the whirling man signifies the importance of spirituality in life.

Salman Ahmed draws rural women and instead of showing them as suffering creatures, which a lot of artists do, gives prominence to their ‘personalities’.

He knows it is not always right to depict individuals as victims all the time, for, in the words of Whitman, each one of us contains multitudes.

Salman Ahmed’s artwork. / Akbar Khan’s piece. / Photos by White Star

Dilawar Khan paints a landscape and keeps it pristine. Steering clear of the trickeries of artifice, he highlights the notion that the simpler the artwork, the better it is.

Kousar raises the question of identity by masking the face of the protagonist the artist has painted. But the mask doesn’t lend inertia to the subject. It’s a moving piece.

Amir Ali examines the somewhat symbiotic relationship between women and musical instruments, and Akbar Khan imparts a melancholic touch to a barren landscape with his noteworthy use of the different shades of ochre.

The other participating artists in the show, which will last until March 3, are Tariq Hussain, Safwat Syed, Muhammad Shafique, Bandah Ali Pathan, Zubi Ali and Junaid Nawab.

Published in Dawn February 25th , 2015

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