October 12, 2002

Iram Ziareviews Shahbaz Malik’s solo show in Karachi

This may be a wrong statement, but generally the Pakistani artists are shy of using colours. It is noticed that many painters prefer to work in subdued hues, for instance. There can be various reasons for that choice — or conditioning — but the most obvious one may be related to the history of art education in the subcontinent, particularly during the British time.

With the end of the colonial period, the then existing and popular indigenous art forms went out of favour. The new rulers/patrons considered the old conventions of art making, the miniature, for instance, as something that lay between the ‘high art’ (European) and ‘craft’ (vernacular) and probably a practice of the primitive mind, and thus disapproved its teaching in newly established art schools.

The old art schools, along with imparting skills to the children of local artisans, taught a new type of art. Western, but mainly, the English painting was the role model for the tutors and pupils. As it happens the art of each area reflects the chromatic scheme and the light of that place — like the traditional arts of the subcontinent have recorded the bright colours visible in its surroundings.

In the same manner the English paintings reproduced the grey and dull range of colours, so peculiar of the English atmosphere. The Pakistani artists, being heir to the tradition of European art schools, and because several of them actually studied in UK, adapted the greyness of the English palette. So if you see the canvases of majority of our painters, you will come across dark tones and sombre colours.

There is another side to the preference for this type of chromatic order. It is linked with the larger aesthetic beliefs prevalent in our society. People, in their cloths and houses, tend to choose pastel shades and light colours, which is supposed to be a mark of sophistication and testifies to their good taste. Vibrant colours, thus, are interpreted as being vulgar, shocking and cheap.

In this context the work of Shahbaz Malik appears as the creative output of a stranger on the local art scene. Perhaps being a resident of a remote area in southern Punjab has something to do with the brightness of his canvases. Or maybe it is his independent approach towards solving formal problems, which has shaped his specific colour palette.

The colours, found in his paintings, are normally viewed in our rural surrounding, where strong hues are required in order to sustain the bleaching sunshine. In a way the vivid colours in Shahbaz Malik’s paintings reflect his immediate environment, as well as replicate the chromatic scheme of Indian miniature painting. In addition to these ‘local’ colours, the indigenous textiles of his region have also inspired his work. He applies the traditional wooden blocks on his surfaces and then fills the shapes with paint, sometimes overlapping the initial designs with other patterns or images. The usage of block printing is very significant in his art, as this technique of image making, once popular, is dying out thanks to other newer means of pattern making. And though Malik does not claim it, but by incorporating this element in his art, he is recording this fading art as well as reminding us of the richness of our heritage.

Malik’s patterns serve as a backdrop for the figures in his paintings. In fact, textile motifs are used as metaphors for the conditioning of our society. Since the patterns in essence are natural entities they are often translated/transformed into measured, confined and repeatable shapes and structures.

Thus, these designs in a way represent the state of human beings living within the boundaries and conventions imposed by a social order — feudal in reference to Malik’s work. In its appearance the work also refers to this social structure, as in one large figure Head of the Household, which is surrounded by several small bodies, his dependents.

The recently concluded exhibition of Shahbaz Malik at Karachi’s V.M. Gallery marks a shift in his aesthetics. Initially his way of working was based on employing flat colours and creating a sense of space through clever selection of tonal variations. The paint was always applied in thick and opaque coats, yet the figures and background were visible through the shapes and the interaction of warm and cool colours.

In the recent body of work, the integral connection of the figure and the background is dealt in a different manner. Now the human body is rendered in a more loose fashion. The gestural strokes are juxtaposed with the accurate designs and impressions of block prints. At places these patterns are placed like borders around the arrangement of figures. Apart from their relationship vis-a-vis the delicate patterns, the figures show a distinct character. These are painted, without any features and in uniform postures. Two aspects, anonymity and repeated placement, bring these close to the essence of design making.

The thirty works on display — all acrylic on canvas — portrayed a range of vivid colours and an expressionistic mark. But the individual manner of working with ‘colours’ and the conscious effort to include ‘craft’ in the form of traditional motifs, save them from turning into just decorative canvases.