KARACHI: A preview of calligraphic works put on display at the Arts Council’s Ahmed Pervez Gallery on Tuesday evening re-emphasised the kind of talent that Pakistan has in the field of art. Works of 19 artists are done in a variety of styles using different scripts, and all of them have a distinctness which enables the viewer to pay attention to each exhibit with undivided attention.

At the centre of the hall is Amin Gulgee’s sculptural piece (copper). According to the curator of the show, it signifies the Arabic letter ‘meem’. Amin has given it a sword-like shape. It is not easy to interpret the work of art. One can, however, deduce that the artist is suggesting that language is a more powerful tool than anything else or he is trying to say that language can be used as a weapon. And the craft involved in the creation of the piece is no less noteworthy.

Fasih Qureshi’s artwork is about 99 names of Allah. He has done it in square kufic script. It is a nicely executed exhibit because not only has he kept in mind the kind of precision that’s required for the script but has also not lost sight of the aesthetics that’s necessary for such an effort.

Abdullah Shah’s oil-on-canvas painting is suffused with spiritual quest. The big swirls accompanied by gentle colours delineate the ecstatic movement that one often associates with the lives of the Sufis. The idea is to surrender one’s self to the divine power and in doing so forget what course one’s life takes.

The paintings made by Zaheer Zubair too fall into the same category, but with a tad more abstraction.

The rest of the participating artists are Liaquat Kiani, Ayesha Ahmed, Zohaib Rind, Farid Durrani, Saiful Islam, Aftab Zafar, Akram Spaul, Tamjeed Anjum, Munir Shah, Atif Ali, Habib Bhopali, Siraj Dahalvi, Waqar Afzal, Shakil Ismail and M. A. Bukhari.

The three-day exhibition formally opens today (Wednesday).

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2016