KARACHI: Did the fabled Emperor wear any clothes at all? No. Perhaps he did. Perhaps the people around him, his subjects, were visually impaired and the child who said he wasn’t wearing any clothes was just lying. Is this the question that artist Muhammad Ali is raising in an exhibition of his latest works titled Emperor’s Real Clothes that opened at the Canvas gallery on Tuesday? No. Perhaps it is.

Ali is a courageous painter. Courage here is used not as a synonym for bravery but in the sense where someone dares or tries to mould the aesthetics involved in art as per their wish. He seems to approach the world of art to achieve a collective sociopolitical goal by being in-your-face. That wouldn’t entirely be a fair assessment. There is a strong streak of individualism in him where he does not think too much about the reception of his creative pursuits. And that’s where he is special.

Ali takes on many aspects of modern-day society — consumerism, conceptual art and even showbiz and art celebrities, to name a few. Doing so, he creates scenes, not images, which make the viewer think in many directions at a time. All this time, by the way, his lush brushstrokes never take a back seat, and that is where he succeeds in as an artist.

The show begins with ‘I’d like to fly but my wings have been denied’ (oil on canvas) and Ali’s intention immediately becomes crystal clear. He brings together, or brings in one frame, readily recognisable faces and creatures and puts them in a situation where they travel multiple worlds. None of these worlds is alien to us. We know where he’s coming from and where he’s taking his protagonists to. If he is protesting against something, well, it is purely on aesthetic grounds. What’s crumbling around him is the world of beauty. Beauty truth, truth beauty, that is all you know, that is all you need to know. The exhibition will run till Oct 27.

Published in Dawn October 19th, 2016