Undoubtedly the country’s most outspoken radical political artist, Abdul Rahim Nagori’s paintings were never intended to please or to decorate the walls, yet the beauty of sensual textures and adept simplification of form were an inherent factor in his work, as were his uncompromising statements, rich with meanings. His exhibition mounted at the Indus Gallery, Karachi, in the ’80s when his scheduled exhibition in Islamabad was cancelled, made history.

I first encountered Professor Nagori at a local art event at the Karachi Arts Council. His speech, that of an idealistic non-conformist, really livened up what started off as a monotonous proceeding. To add to the occasion he had brought along one of his own paintings which he displayed from the podium, it was a portrait of a parakeet dressed in a full general’s uniform. That was during the martial law regime.

Nagori’s work was dedicated to giving voice to the oppressed, while retaining a pictorial and aesthetic value. Though trained as a muralist, for many years economics decreed that he work on a small scale, with a power and message that likened his work to banners held aloft in battles. He longed to work on the large canvas and quoted Anna Molka Ahmed who had told him, ‘open your arms to the canvas’, but his work was directed towards raising serious socio-political issues.

Nagori did his masters in fine art from the Punjab University in 1965, and in 1970 he established a fine arts department at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, and for many years served as its head. He was a scholastic man, well versed in eastern history and philosophy and his work resonated with symbols referring to ancient myths and legends. These he introduced to articulate his protest against the injustice and cruelty of man to his fellow beings tempered with a mood of sardonic observation.

Many of his paintings dealt with the suppression of women, which he did not see as limited to a particular class. One remembers a painting showing two contrasting females, one a peasant girl, the other dressed in finery, both threatened by the same dark predator. Nagori traced the oppression of women back to the primeval age when young girls were ritually sacrificed to appease the elements.

In his work he used colour symbolically and dramatically, juxtaposing horizontal and vertical lines. Every stroke was placed with meticulous care. Many of his paintings were worked with the palette knife over which he clearly exercised total command. Nagori mounted his last exhibition titled, ‘Return to the Sphinx’ in 2004. As always his work was vibrant, uncompromising and darkly satiric. From a defiant radical waving a lone fist at implacable powers he was no longer ‘a voice in the wilderness’, he was regarded as the most respected socio-political painter in the country and remained true to his convictions.

He was highly amused when most of his paintings were sold in exhibition, but although he continued to paint he declined to exhibit again though his presence was documented in significant exhibitions abroad.

In 2006, Amber Romano wrote a poignant book on the artist’s life for Fomma. He fully deserved the President’s Pride of Performance Award 2011, now sadly a posthumous honour. His place is assured in the artist’s Valhalla alongside the icons of history.