Bashir Ahmad at work in his studio
Bashir Ahmad at work in his studio

When Bashir Ahmad joined the National College of Arts (NCA) as a painting major in 1970, few of his classmates sat in the classes of miniature painting. Cubism, nearly an obsession with artists in Lahore, had swept through the country in the early 1960s after Shakir Ali had brought the art form from Europe, and Gulgee’s penchant for abstract expressionism had spread equally far and fast. The NCA faculty and other Pakistani artists had become enamoured with European Modernism. Miniature painting was considered old-fashioned, out-of-touch and career opportunities with expertise in this genre were limited to say the least. Miniature painting became a neglected genre. Ahmad was the only student to take a serious interest in perfecting the skills and learning the different styles of Persian, Mughal and Rajput painting.

In 1972, Ahmad began an eight-year intensive and disciplined apprenticeship in miniature painting with Sheikh Shujaullah, including several years with the aging Mohammad Haji Sharif. Both teachers had been court painters in India before Partition. The shagird/ustad relationship of Ahmad’s instruction emulated the age-old model of the Mughal Period where the shagird served the ustad for months, often for several years to prove his dedication before even the most elemental tasks such as making paper or brushes were introduced. Learning to draw and paint came later. Coveted techniques and processes such as making paint and preparing gold and silver foil came much later.

For a year-and-a-half he made tea, prepared the hookah, brought paan and cigarettes for his teacher, rubbed his legs and performed other menial tasks, all the while observing the preparation and painting process closely. Ahmad said, “I put aside my ego and all sensitivity to succeed. Students and some faculty members tried to discourage me.” But the artist knew that he had to go through what his teachers had gone through. Later, he infused aspects of his apprenticeship into his own classes.

Bashir Ahmad is a vital link between traditional miniature practice and its teaching methodology

During his apprenticeship, he began modifying the style and subject matter of miniature painting. He was the first to initiate the transformation from traditional to contemporary. ‘Woman Smoking a Hookah’ is just one example among many. Here Bashir adapted the popular theme of a Raja with a hookah to that of a woman smoking a hookah positioned into a modernist setting. Framing devices overlap the pictorial imagery to upset the normal interpretation of space. The geometric border — a skill Ahmad learned from Shujaullah who specialised in this art form — fades at each end and disappears, conjoining decorative border with what it frames.

Royal Affection
Royal Affection

The black landscapes dominated by a black moon are two recurring motifs in the artist’s iconographic vocabulary. Larger than a traditional miniature measuring 30 inches by 20 inches and rendered in graphite rather than paint, the artist challenges the expectation of what a Mughal, Rajput or Pahari painting should be. Some of his paintings, many in colour, adopt contemporary subject matter, but all share the basis of traditional skills practised by the artist since the time of his apprenticeship. ‘Storm Coming’ has a Kangra lady standing in a Persian landscape looking at the artist’s iconic invention of twisting, roiling clouds. While the technique of colour application is traditional, the colour combinations are personal and inventive.

A few years after graduation, Ahmad began his professional career at the NCA as a lecturer in fine arts. Haji Sharif died in 1978 and when Shujaullah died in 1980, Bashir became the ustad of miniature painting at the NCA. To save this art form from extinction he began formulating a syllabus and curriculum for a degree programme in miniature painting. It would be, he knew, the only programme of this kind in the world. The task was daunting. All prior instruction had been taken by sitting on the floor next to the teacher; nothing was written down. Ahmad had to create assignments that would take students step-by-step from zero experience to creating a finished painting of their own design.

Moonlight Stroll
Moonlight Stroll

In addition to Mughal history and culture, the students needed a basic understanding of Hindu mythology, particularly stories about the deity Krishna who was a popular character in Rajput and Pahari painting. How to order the instructional tasks, accomplish a complete learning experience in three years (after the first year of foundations) was difficult enough, but gearing it to the temperament of young contemporary learners was another hurdle to overcome. They would not be amenable to the type of methodology that he had experienced with Shujaullah. Since Ahmad was from a family of teachers he was confident in his ability to accomplish his goals.

In 1981 Ahmad completed the curriculum/syllabus and presented it to the proper NCA committee for degree approval. When the committee denied several requests, Ahmad kept submitting it and the programme was finally approved in 1982. In the first six years only nine students enrolled in the programme. While such small participation was disappointing, it offered the advantage of giving Ahmad extensive time with each student. He was able to follow his carefully prepared curriculum and include some of the shagird/ustad apprenticeship techniques as well.

Prince on Horse
Prince on Horse

Shahzia Sikander was the eighth student to join the programme. Her dedication, talent and creativity were soon evident and received so much press that enrolment doubled the next year. After her graduation from Rhode Island School of Design, Sikander’s fame grew even more and so did participation in the NCA degree programme.

Most of the graduates could not understand what Ahmad experienced in the shagird/ustad apprenticeship. Some complained that his teaching method was different from that of the other painting teachers at the NCA. He painted on students’ work to demonstrate a better way to approach a task and even washed off parts or all of their painting when it was faulty. Student practices are not precious, he would say. Unaccustomed to this modus operandi, students were annoyed. They didn’t understand that this was part of the old methodology and rightfully Ahmad hoped that some of the tradition would live on. He taught them to make wasli and brushes, all from scratch. Why waste time making paper many thought and catching a squirrel to get hair from its tail for the brush was even more frustrating. Eventually he arranged for packets of squirrel hair and other materials to be purchased in the bazaar. Like the Mughal artists of the distant past, he kept secret the method for making paint from precious and semi-precious stones and minerals. I don’t know of anyone he has yet been honoured with knowledge of this process.

Prince in Court
Prince in Court

Ahmad insists that drawing is fundamental to miniature painting and when students complain that he is too strict, he says, “You have to learn the alphabet before you can make words and then sentences before you can write statements, it is the same for miniature painting.” To preserve a sense of connection to Pakistan’s cultural and artistic past, Ahmad introduced NCA students to indigenous puppetry and nautanky (theatre) and hired a calligrapher to teach that art as well. By the mid-’90s when classes were too large for the artist to teach alone, he employed graduates for assistance.

Ahmad retired from the NCA in 2014. He continues painting in his own studio in Lahore with a coterie of students sitting on the floor appreciative of his mentorship. Shahzia Sikander, Imran Qureshi, Saira Waseem, Nusra Latif Qureshi, Talha Rathore, Aisha Khalid, Waseem Ahmad and so many other graduates of the miniature painting programme have pushed forward the movement he initiated into international renown. Ahmad has exhibited worldwide and curated numerous exhibitions for his students, it is time to acknowledge and celebrate his great contribution to the history of art in Pakistan.

The writer is Professor Emeritus at the Oklahoma State University in the United States

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 22nd, 2017

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