June 8, 2002

The first thing that strikes one about Moazzam Ali’s work is the effect of light. Waves of entire areas submerged in whiteness, burning boundaries, diluting colour, rising up as a haze, streaks of white lines giving the effect of crumpled paper or in ripples where the paper is allowed to shine through. However, for Moazzam, it is not the subject or light that is important, but the ‘treatment of the work’ — the medium, watercolour.

The exhibition that opened on May 21 at Karachi’s Clifton Art Gallery, appears to be a celebration of Ali’s signature style: that lyrically fluid quality from pale washes building up entire areas, to tickles, streaks of colour dripping down or in splodges, applied in a wide variety of brushstrokes from broad bold swathes to more intricate lines. All this set off by the free and confident pencil drawing. Everything in the painting seems to flow like the shifting shimmery surface of a lake with its myriad of reflections, a deliberate manifestation of the ‘watery effect.’

One can, because of this natural effect of water, read a lot into the work. Influences of cubism as forms are broken up into squares or curves as the contours of pitchers resonate in the background, the fluid brushwork can be interpreted as the effects of motion or wind, or texture of wind-blown sand; yet it is all basically a mastery over a medium.

The exhibition is divided into four series based on the theme of Thar Woman: Thar Woman Sleeping, Working, with a Pitcher and the Ralli series.

The Sleeping Thar Woman series seems more like a study in figures. All the elements are there, a free confident line quality, anatomically proportionate drawing with strong figurative forms. Yet, for the most part, the series rarely goes beyond being mere a figure study and fails to be emotive.

Where Moazzam Ali has experimented with the composition and used more subdued sombre colours and strokes his work acquires depth and meaning. Dabbling with such an oft-repeated topic, it is difficult to rise above the conventional, and although Ali’s treatments is novel and attractive, where the compositions are boringly typical, the paintings appear as just pretty pictures.

The artist defends himself, saying his best work has already left the galley. Although the exhibition claimed to be on till the June 8, most of the best works were no longer on display soon after the show opened, as they were sold off and allowed to be taken away.

However, it is true that where the composition has been played with, as in one image of the Sleeping Thar Woman, the effect goes beyond the ‘pretty picture’ label. Where Ali limits his palate to a few tones of pale washes set off by concentrated areas of intense colour and brushwork, the effect is dynamic — as in the work of a lone woman in tones of brown and red against a backdrop of washes of ochre set off by a single line of startlingly blue colour.

Moazzam Ali says he revels in colours and uses them without fear. It is obvious, though, he should still limit his palette and balance it with sombre hues for depth. The Ralli series, fascinating in its effects of billowing colour, could use more sombre tones and texture.

Ali has tried to fuse together expressionism — abstraction with a strong emphasis on drawing. He intends to further simplify his work, using a fusion of these styles. Asked why he concentrated on women, he replied that their beauty and grace was appealing as it was to other artists, who depicted them with doves. “I have shown them dignified,” he says.

One may never really understand this stereotyping of women as beautiful empty objects but if the purpose of the exhibition was merely to enchant as pretty picture do, Ali’s work fulfils it. The works are worth viewing for the fascinating effects of watercolour, if for nothing else.