March 08, 2009

The recent paintings of Farrukh Shahab exhibited at the ArtScene Gallery, Karachi reveal the ongoing development of his ‘form in space’ approach to art. It is a method that allows him to freely explore the shift and nuances of colour tones using the media of oil, acrylic, charcoal and coffee on canvas and on wood surfaces.

As a young artist working in the studio of Iqbal Mehdi, for years Shahab painted in the style of super-realism. His skill was recognised by awards of top honours in local exhibitions and he was primarily known as a portraitist.

Successful though he was, the desire to enter into the labyrinth of contemporary artistic experience was too strong to withstand. Leaving the Iqbal Mehdi studio he travelled widely and returned home to spend his hours in the studio, striving to formulate an aesthetic idiom that expressed more than conscious views of the world around him. As he explains: “So much comes from the subconscious. Art is a visual language that is not possible to glibly explain.”

Enjoying the feel and texture of old wood as a surface for his painting, Shahab buys old panelled doors which become his painting surfaces. He searches the markets for books on artists and relates how he recently found a volume on Pierre Bonnard, in which referring to his work Bonnard used the term ‘concatenation’ (a series of links united; a series of things depending on each other). This word struck a chord in Shahab’s imagination and became the inspiration of his latest work.

Viewing the work displayed, one finds enclosed in the panels of an old door, myriad patterns suggesting landscape. Indications of sky, trees, leaves and forms in a vertical pattern are worked with a mesh of brushstrokes in a mosaic of pastel shades. Outlines are rendered with brushes that are cropped and used like a pen dipped into oil and turpentine.

There are paintings that refer to digital prints, numerous tiny painted faces showing every passing mood. The artist lightly involves diverse disciplines, calligraphy, numerical, sculpture and architecture, executed in a range of warm and cool shades.

Shahab applies his media with a layered technique that ensures diverse hues are glimpsed, tapping sources of energy and fluctuating between smooth and textured surfaces varying fluid forms or animated marks. There are small wooden boxes, as of children’s bricks, painted throughout with tiny faces enclosed in block like squares.

His current work thus appears to be entering another phase. It is on a larger scale; a woman’s form, almost abstract, the brushwork describing vertical balance as well as a defining purpose. Another larger work depicts the suggestion of two faces densely patterned with tiny circles and leaves, contrived with a strong design element.

Much of Shahab’s work is focused on images of multidimensionality, his interpretation of the world around him, with meanings that may change in a wider context.

 

Shahab lightly involves diverse disciplines, calligraphy, numerical, sculpture and architecture