KARACHI: A condolence reference for painter Mansoor Rahi was held at the Arts Council of Pakistan on Wednesday evening, participated by a decent number of his admirers. Rahi passed away on May 12 this year.

Painter Farrukh Shahab went down memory lane to tell the attendees that it was the Arts Council which initially invited Mr Rahi to display his talent. He had taught at the council for a short period as well.

Artist Meher Afroze said she had a brief but close association with Mr Rahi. “When I came to Karachi, Pakistan, in 1971 [from Lucknow], I didn’t know much about the city. I had been told that there were two sisters [Rabia and Hajra] in Karachi. Coincidentally, I chanced upon the Karachi School of Art (set up by Rabia Zuberi). That’s how I first met Mr Rahi [who was married to Hajra].”

She said the late painter always gave invaluable advice. For example, once when she made a new painting, he told her that she shouldn’t sell it because he thought the kind of experimentation she had come up with in the artwork would help her in the future.

Art critic Nilofur Farrukh said she didn’t know the late painter that well but when Farrukh Shahab invited her to the reference, she agreed to come because Mr Rahi was an influential and important artist. “Interestingly, I heard about him for the first time in this very building [the council]. The way people used to talk about him made me want to meet him. He was a good teacher. What you give to your students is very important.

“Rabia Zuberi, Rahi sahib and Hajra were pillars of the Karachi School of Art. The school produced a big number of artists. We shouldn’t forget this. Whenever the history of the city is written, the school’s contribution will be mentioned in it. One of his students from Islamabad [since he had shifted to the capital city] had told me that he was a generous teacher. His drawings were very good. My last conversation with him was about that. I said to him that he should exhibit his drawings. For decades he did a certain type of work. He adopted cubism and according to critic Akbar Naqvi, he entered cubism through Picasso, which is right. He was mainly influenced by Picasso’s Guernica.”

T U Dawood said she’s a fan of Mr Rahi and was introduced to him when she worked as a journalist for Dawn.

Arts Council’s president Ahmed Shah said Mr Rahi spent a great deal of time in Karachi. He used to transfer what he knew. He was the last great master of his generation. “We have the works [at the council] of six Bengali masters, including that of Rahi sahib.”

Theatre person Anwer Jafri said he had known Mr Rahi for the last six decades. “When I was 17 or 18 years of age, I went to Mina Art School in Nazimabad. I saw big canvases there for the first time. The kind of image that we usually have an artist —carefree, long hair etc. — Rahi sahib was not like that. He looked like a body builder. That was my first meeting with him.” He also highlighted the ‘discipline’ of the late artist.

Jamal Shah, Chitra Pritam and Abdul Sattar Rind, among others, also spoke.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2024