KARACHI: In the 21st century, a good number of Pakistani painters are using Urdu poetry as a major source of inspiration to express their inner selves visually. This inter-being nature of text and images is in vogue. It is worth watching, because painters excel in their work when they use colours and lines in a poetic way.

A S Rind is one of them. An exhibition of his artworks titled Affairs of the Heart can be seen at the Clifton Art Gallery in which he has used Urdu poems penned by literary giants to embellish his paintings which are known for traditionally attired female figures.

Before one gets to the textual element of it, the other recurrent symbols apart from women in Rind’s work are musical instruments and birds. This indicates his love for the delicate nature of life. Our tough existence requires softness which only beauty can provide. As John Keats writes in his masterpiece Ode on a Grecian Urn, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”.

Rind is an ardent admirer of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz whose nazms and qat’aat have often accompanied the colourful figures in his frames. In this show Faiz is there, but there’s an addition of quite a few other noted versifiers. For example, the greatest of them all Ghalib’s ghazal can be seen (and read) alongside three delicate females with dreamy eyes whose opening couplet is:

Hazaron khwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pe dumm niklay Buhat niklay merey armaan lekin phir bhi kam niklay

[There are thousands of desires upon which I’d rather lose my life; many of them are fulfilled, but many others still remain]

Then there are the likes of very popular Sahir Ludhyanvi and Ahmed Faraz. Arguably, the surprise inclusion is that of Saifuddin Saif whose ghazal ‘Meri dastaan-i-hasrat wo suna suna ke roey’ (they told my story with tears in their eyes) makes an appearance as well.

The exhibition, a visual treat for poetry and art lovers, concludes on Jan 29 (today).

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2022