July 19, 2003

‘At ease and affable, R.M. Naeem is one of a group of young, talented, and ambitious artists who emerged in recent years to make their presence felt in the country’s art circles. He has worked hard to achieve the niche that is assuredly his,’ writes Marjorie Husain

Raja Muhammad Naeem’s studio in Lahore is large and airy. Here he conducts drawing classes assisted by his NCA-trained wife Sadaf. During my visit, the studio was full of young people absorbed in sketching given objects. Outside, an open courtyard overlooked neighbouring gardens and roads glimpsed through the leafy branches of trees.

Even without the students’ presence it was obviously an artist’s home. There were easels set up at various points and the walls were hung with Naeem and Sadaf’s work along with their that of friends and students. The couple’s baby son completes the family and their home is one in which friends love to drop by.

Naeem left his hometown of Mirpurkhas, Sindh, in ’89, to begin student life at the National College of Arts, Lahore. His experience up to that time had included painting trucks, buses and cinema hoardings at a centre known as Jamil’s Art in Mirpurkhas. He had been accorded top honours at government-organized painting exhibitions celebrating national events in Mirpurkhas, and had his eyes set on getting the best possible art education available.

Once in Lahore, the young man with a background of years of art-related work, was living his dreams and he was not going to waste one minute of his time. Inured to working hard, he made like-minded friends and soon won the approval of his teachers who became his role models, and for whom he retains the highest regard. In ‘91-‘93, he was awarded an NCA merit scholarship.

“I was so happy to receive admission to a great environment with an opportunity to study art and learn from experienced teachers. But when I reached the NCA, I had a crisis of confidence that had to do with my simple background. My fellow students seemed to me to be so much more worldly and knowledgeable than I was.

“I was determined to work very hard and overcome these complexes and I made friends with serious, intelligent people. I spent my time with these friends and my teachers, and began to learn about art, life and human values. At the same time I did all sorts of labouring jobs to pay my college fees. I value that experience too.

“In my second year I exhibited a landscape at an exhibition and the painting sold. That helped my confidence enormously and I was sure I could survive in my chosen field. In my third year at the NCA, I started painting human forms. I exhibited my first figure painting at the Artist’s Association of the Punjab’s annual art display and was awarded a prize. It gave me great encouragement. I realized the human form is a difficult genre to explore but it was something I knew I had to do.

“I consider myself very fortunate in many ways, my marriage as well as my career. During my student days my teachers and seniors were so interested and helpful and I graduated from the NCA in ‘93 in the first division with a distinction.”

Naeem’s thesis at the NCA was titled: Everything Has Two Sides. The work described the duality that threads his work like a leitmotif. Colin David empathized on this phenomena a decade later during another of Naeem’s exhibitions: ‘After he shed his early influences there was no going back. Being a child of the ’70s is no easy task for a painter brought up in the modern era and having his own culture as a constant reminder of his not to be forgotten roots.’

Speaking of his work Naeem explains:

“To me painting is no different than life itself; how you think, how you feel, how you perceive. I began by painting isolated figures but at my second solo exhibition held in ’97, titled Configuration, I started concentrating on the structural and technical values of miniature painting with a realistic discipline. I did not consciously break or design the anatomy of the human figure, that was a later development.”

Meeting R.M. Naeem at his first solo exhibition in Karachi in 1999, the initial impression was that of an artist completely invested in his work. There was a lot of energy and excitement in his paintings, he was not afraid to take risks while evoking a curiosity about the world outside and his own perception of it.

Naeem’s approach to the medium was sensual: rich textural effects made a backdrop for figure studies and portraits based on direct observation. It was reality diffused with surrealistically flavoured expressionism. From that time on, Naeem exhibited his work regularly in Karachi to a growing public interest. One found in the artist’s work a spark of fantasy that leavened the truthful power of observation. This perhaps echoed his interest in drama and mime, an interest that earned him a Special Prize from the NCA in ’93.

At the time of his exhibition in Karachi, Naeem had already mounted several solo exhibitions in Islamabad and Lahore and from 1994, had been a visiting lecturer at the National College of Arts. He had the experience of several group shows behind him and was the recipient of scholarships, awards and prizes.

Whether painting or drawing, he showed the same expressive power. He had assisted professors Saeed Akhtar and Muhammad Asif in their drawing studios and, in 1996, began to teach drawing and painting in a studio of his own. Viewing Naeem’s work one becomes an observer sharing the artist’s perception and his unique sense of ‘self’ enveloped in dreams. It becomes clear that he is, first and foremost, a painter of the human form, a genre followed by few painters in Pakistan. Naeem’s forms are often juxtaposed with objects as in the Carton series (2000), in which female figures were painted with, or inside, large, loosely aligned cardboard boxes.

The year 2000 found the artist attending a residency in Sri Lanka at an international artists’ camp in the Habarana village, organized by the George Kyet Foundation. It was a useful experience offering a chance to interact with artists from other countries. On that occasion he created an installation — nine feet by nine feet Talking Heads — in which he incorporated mixed-media on wood, paper and canvas. That same year Sadaf and Naeem married in Lahore, in a simple ceremony attended by both the families, and together the two artists formed a complete unit.

In a further description of his work ethos, Naeem said: “When I am painting I concentrate on that rather than injecting a concept into it. These days, people find it quite easy to get information about the outside world from the web and other sources but I feel strongly that you cannot with justification buy or borrow ideas which do not relate to your own culture, society, economy or your intellect. For instance (talking of Christo), you cannot wrap buildings in a country where people don’t have the means to clothe themselves.”

A very active teacher, Naeem is deeply involved with his students at the NCA and is always available for them. He teaches them to be proud of their history, pointing out the links that are traced back to one of the world’s earliest civilizations.

The artist begins his own work in the late evening after the studio classes, and it carries on into the night. A National Award winning artist honoured at the 8th National Visual Arts Exhibition organized by the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in May this year, he is currently engaged in a bold new series that combines organic images with stylized forms and faces worked in strong colours.

The on-going work is a departure that echoes the artist’s interest in mime and masque. R.M. Naeem is engaged in enjoying the process of art, and exploring its possibilities. He is an artist to watch for and far from being confined to any one viewpoint at this exciting stage of his career.