“ Great art for me is that which looks beyond the existing nature of things and enters the realm of the unknown or unseen …” is the opening line of Assaad Sallahudin’s ‘artist statement’, that forms the key to understanding the raison d'etre of his style and content of painting, the latest series of which were showcased recently at Lahore’s Color Gallery.

Sallahudin’s preoccupation with “unknown” realms of existence goes back a long way now. More than two decades ago, in a book written on Pakistani artists, the art historian Marcella Nesom Sirhandi had noted that “Assaad’s content derives from his fascination — both literary and personal — with psychology, Sufism, mysticism and the occult”. She had even quoted his observation, that “man comes from the universe, from the unknown, and is going back to it”.

Not only in terms of theme, but also with regards to the style of painting, there is obviously an element of consistency or perhaps even fixation, with creating “vague relationships, and unfinished forms” that Sirhandi had also recorded in her critique of his work.

In his recent body of paintings, a total of 11 medium to large-sized works on canvas, the aura of ambiguity and mystery prevails. His strokes are bold and sweeping, and the human figures that emerge out of his expressionist discourse tend to take on varying personas, both in terms of appearance and style of rendering. There are nuances of realism in the depiction of some faces and figures, while others are like the preliminary sketches made by artists. Still others are just a blur of the imagination, while many fade into oblivion, like ghosts from some past life that are traversing the artist’s inner world as it spills over in his canvases, all of which are titled, ‘Silent Prevailences’.

The “lights and shadows” that Sallahuddin talks about in the context of his ‘unknown’ universe, are apparent in varying degrees in his creative discourse.

These range from mottled hues to luminous ones, so that while there are canvases that captivate the viewer by their impact in terms of colour combination and dynamism of brush work that express the intuitive maturity of the artist, there are others that are too sketchy and disturbing in their lack of focus.

Sallahudin’s unfettered approach works well for his theme, but one hopes it is not at times an excuse to carry on with a vocabulary he has been working with for so many years. Being a creative being, an artist has the license to create forms according to his inspiration, but the impetus to move on in new directions or further excel in whatever one is preoccupied with, is also a sign of dynamism and desire for higher levels of expression.

Obviously the artist is at the end of the day, the best judge of what he must or must not do, and Sallahuddin, being an advocate of creativity, is still likely to discover many new ideas and forms in his world of imagination, intuition, and even the ‘real’ world.