KARACHI: Thar has always been a favourite subject with the artists from Sindh but of late it has acquired greater prominence. Next week, a new venue, Thar Art Gallery, on Zamzama will open with an exhibition of Athar Jamal’s paintings on his favourite subject, Thar.

This week Citi Art Gallery hosted an interesting show of oil on canvas. Titled Thar – Agony of Earth, the exhibition comprises 28 paintings done by a leading psychiatrist of the city, Dr Syed Ali Wasif, who is essentially a self-taught painter.

His mentor and inspiration has been none other than the legendary Sadequain, who has left an indelible mark on Wasif’s paintings.

The human figures and the cacti are reminiscent of the great artist. Wasif doesn’t hesitate to say that he owes a lot to two people – Dr Haroon Ahmed in his profession and Sadequain in his paintings. “But Sadequain’s paintings have never been so colourful,” someone told the artist. “Well, that’s simply because he never went to Thar soon after rainfall, else he too would have painted the people and the region in their true colours,” he replied. Before he did this series, Wasif’s paintings were not colourful either.

The paintings are all about the plight of the legendary character Marvi, as narrated in Shah jo Risalo. The psychiatrist in him helps the painter bring out the stress in the character. No figure has his or her eyes open and all of them including the villain Umar seem stressful.

One of his paintings that shows Marvi extending a hand, while trapped in a well, is thematically and technically his best.

Wasif is not willing to accept that he is a part-time painter. He practises psychiatry four days a week and paints single-mindedly on the remaining three days.

“How would you define your art?” asked a cub reporter from another daily. “I leave it for my viewers to do that for themselves,” the artist replied. A sensible answer, one would say.

The exhibition is to continue till the eve of Eid.