February 28, 2004

Displayed at the Canvas gallery recently, Afshar Malik’s collection of twenty mixed-media artworks described a variety of art disciplines and media on surfaces of varying scales. Though different in approach, many of the smaller pieces were linked by a reflective mood. Strong linear images demonstrated the precise movement of the artist’s hand in compositions that appeared to emerge from a single line.

Three large, epic paintings that dominated the show, offered a kaleidoscopic version of an account of the artist’s life. Introduced were family members, childhood memories, dreams and fears with fragmented allusions to the artist’s earlier work interspersed among the references. Portrayed with wit, charm and versatility, the juxtaposed impressions of a perceived world and images from the deeper recesses of the subconscious merged into a tapestry that wove an esoteric personal narrative.

The artworks ‘Hero of the Paradise Earth’, ‘The Paradise Earth’ and ‘Last of the Paradise Earth’ formed a sequence that freely assimilated art references and idioms: collage, photo montage, printmaking and painting were combined in an ever-changing, child-like (never childish), uninhibited freedom of expression.

The ‘Hero of the Paradise Earth’ evoked the four classic genres of art history: portraiture, still-life, landscape and the nude. The hero, shown as the central figure in the painting and wearing a peaked cap, began as an image in a photograph that showed an officer standing with a friend beside him. This picture, which Malik explained was his father, at one time a serving officer in Damascus, became the artist’s point of departure. In Malik’s version, the artist supplanted the companion and standing with one arm around his father, was transformed into a bright yellow ‘Priapus’ figure crowned with bananas.

The work was a visual feast of lush fruit, translucent colour and diverse forms that seemed to float over opulent, radiant, surfaces. The unrelated shapes, swirling around the central focus of the composition, created a rhythm that kept the eye in motion with textures that had the viewer’s fingers itching to run over the surfaces of the work.

The fearless experimentation, incorporating shapes and sizes, colours and methods in an experimental way, convened to share with observers the obvious enjoyment of the artist at work. Each of the larger pieces demanded attention and concentration from the observer, and in return revealed numerous, unexpected elements.

There were tiny cut-out and pasted pictures; still life from a magazine and minute buttons. Stately fish; strokes that resembled script and mosaic designs created of collage referred to both eastern and western art history were among the intriguing components of the work; a reminder of the passing of time was indicated by way of the clock and calendar images.

Intriguing though the personal narrative may be, ultimately it is the observer who decides upon the story according to his own patterned viewpoint. As creative in his inner world as the artist, the viewer metamorphoses the portrayed relatives and dreams into a closer, related, adventure. That factor had a great deal to do with the charm of the work and the ability of the artist to open doors and invite the audience to join him.

Afshar Malik is a distinguished, widely experienced artist and ceramist who, for years, was primarily known as a printmaker. He expressed his views in solo exhibitions of his works in intricate detail, using a language of varied motifs and optimistic colour. Malik graduated from the National College of Art, Lahore in ’78, and set out to gain experience using his skills as an illustrator/cartoonist for a newspaper, and held a visualizer’s post with an advertising agency for a year before joining the NCA as lecturer in ’83.

In ‘86, he joined the Slade School of Art, London, where he obtained a postgraduate degree in printmaking in ’88. After showing his work in a group display at the Royal College of Art, he returned to Lahore and the NCA where he was appointed assistant professor in printmaking. Almost a decade was to pass after his graduation before he held his first solo exhibition of lithographs and etchings in Lahore.

Since then there have been several solo exhibitions in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi, and contributions to major group exhibitions abroad. In ’95 Malik embarked on a group venture establishing a ceramic workshop named ‘Humsub’, which is active to date. The painting aspect began to figure largely in his work in recent years; yet, he retains the detailed method and approach to colour, recognized as a signature style.