ISLAMABAD: Raja Changez Sultan, noted painter and poet, presents a captivating journey through his distinctive world where mountains, muses, memory, and mystery converge.
The exhibition “Of Mountains and Muses,” currently showing at Tanzara, features 46 paintings across three series exploring majestic mountains, associated mystiques, and urban social fragmentation. The show is a profound visual experience and philosophical meditation, celebrating a life devoted to art that draws viewers deep into the artist’s world.
Curator Noshi Qadir notes Sultan’s “distinctive practice has evolved over many decades, earning international acclaim.”
The poet-painter’s distinguished career spans over seventy exhibitions worldwide, with recent honours including the Sitara-e-Imtiaz and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Trinity College, she adds.
A graduate of Shrewsbury School, Trinity College, and Columbia University, Sultan worked at the UN and WHO in Geneva before returning to Pakistan to head PNCA, driven by “love for his country”, spearheading over sixty exhibitions, and publishing four poetry collections.
Sultan describes his journey: “At an early age, my life’s journey took me from mathematics and science into painting and poetry—aiming to create 10 outstanding paintings and 10 outstanding poems in my lifetime. Now in my mid 70s, I think it’s been a fun ride, and I’d do it the same way again!” The ‘Himalayan Odyssey’ series transports viewers into a world of grandeur and contemplation.
Through luminous layers of blue, turquoise, and violet, Himalayan landscapes emerge as imagined realms suspended between memory and dream. The peaks appear soft and glowing, half-hidden in mist, floating between earth and sky without sharp detail, just atmosphere and light.
As Sultan explains, “When you travel to the northern mountain regions, the air is very clean and the vast expanse before you is truly inspiring. At first I photographed these landscapes, but later I realised I ought to paint them.” The palette is cool. Deep indigo mountains rise from luminous blue skies, with faint touches of green, gold, and orange near the horizon, dreamlike and serene.
The ‘Divided Self’ series delves into the complexities of the human psyche through enigmatic female figures emerging through veils of colour. The women, solitary or together, hover between presence and absence, revealing and concealing themselves equally.
More than portraits, they represent our divided nature, the perpetual conflict between public persona and private torment. Sultan describes the work as exploring a scattered, divided self. He suggests that we all contain competing inner forces — some that push us forward, some that hold us back, and others that try to silence us. These facets shape us both psychologically and socially. For Sultan, this internal conflict is the story of the divided self.
‘Wood Nymph’ series bridges the other two, depicting female figures as natural emanations of forested landscapes. Women in white wander through lush green fields or forests, alone or in small groups, suggesting a primal connection between humanity and nature.
There’s a sense of journey or pilgrimage. The palette features vivid greens from deep forest to bright lime, with brilliant saturated blue skies above. The colours are heightened: the greens too bright, the blues too pure creating a heightened memory of landscape rather than literal representation.
Across all three series, he uses soft, blurred brushwork and layered colour to create dreamlike worlds, moving easily between figurative and abstract. The show runs through September 24.
Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2026
