Street smart: Virtual reality

While walking over to the college through the meandering streets of Sialkot, Yusuf Tanvir was always fascinated by the dexterous roadside painters battling with mega paintings. His interest in street art transformed into an obsession to become a painter when he met his mentor, Ustad Bashir Kanwar. With enhanced appreciation for art gathered through his guru, he continued to paint in various mediums with an endeavour to express beyond the vision of traditional commercial painters.

Decades ago, the onset of digital revolution and its rapid application in every facet of the material world caused an instantaneous vacuum in the graphic domain. Soon enough, the craving for harnessing this magical technology of bits and bytes for art led to the birth of virtual reality.

Recognising the potential of digital art, Tanvir switched over to computers in the early '90s and weathered the challenges of simulating traditional mediums (watercolour, oils, pastel, etc.) through digital tools. His career in virtual art took off in 1994 when he painted the first and largest ever digital portrait of Quaid-i-Azam, which was widely acknowledged and appreciated. Consequently, the result of 15 years of unremitting toil can be seen in the 40 digital paintings that are exhibited under the title 'Virtual reality', the artist's first solo exhibition, at the Vision Art Gallery, Karachi.

The collection of paintings represents a wide variety of subjects ranging from captivating landscapes to sensuous life compositions. The exhibition is an unconventional mix of topics and arguments, devoid of a customary theme. According to the artist, the choice of wide-ranging subjects was deliberate owing to his deep attachment to nature and its diversity.

Although his tutor gave him the initial impetus, nevertheless, in the absence of academic training, Tanvir remained largely a self-taught artist. With his extraordinarily chaste and unbiased approach to painting, the artist claims that he enjoys a healthier freedom of expression. If his work, for its purity, were to be categorised in the league of primitive digital artists, it would not be wrong.

Despite the enormous power of the media, the artist chose to paint using only manual brush strokes through the digital tablet while refraining from the use of filters and plug-ins. This, the artist explains, is for the purpose of maintaining a closer relationship with his subjects and to obviate their transformation beyond a certain threshold of character. The resulting purity from his naÃ¯ve demeanour is the artist's strength which makes his digital paintings a pleasant experience to watch.

The painting titled, 'Spring' depicting a sparrow perched on a branch with rose pink flowers dominating the canvas is an eye-catching composition for its freshness, colour and composition. Another striking painting titled, 'Village morning scene' has been displayed in duplicate with two different treatments. One is organic and aesthetically stylised while the other has been kept closer to reality to provide the audience a reference. The painting titled, 'Rhythmic flow of light' in blue is by far the most enchanting for its bold composition and workmanship.

A few paintings are titled, 'Mother and child', depicting maternal affection in all its grace. Executed with compassion these paintings under the traditional title are soulful and expressive. 'Imprints of life' is yet another remarkably rendered portrait of an aged man in black and white which immediately narrates the subject's life story.

Being it a technically interactive and challenging media, the artist exhibits fair expertise in the digital domain to produce complex and attractive paintings without a hint of wanting. Considering the obvious compunction in the use of digital tools, it is evident that the artist can unleash incredible works of art once he unravels himself through daring exploitation of the medium's enormous potential.