Celebrating the 75th birthday of Jamil Naqsh, the Momart Gallery, Karachi, recently re-opened at a new location, has mounted a spectacular exhibition of the artist’s latest work painted for the occasion. On the opening of the event, a permanent display area was also inaugurated that contains the artist’s work, while a book illustrating his work titled, Beyond Words, was also launched.

Love has been the raison d'etre for the internationally acclaimed work of Naqsh. Through the years, one has seen the birds that symbolised a diversity of emotions; the female forms immortalised and the outpouring of his homage to artists such as Picasso, Marino Marini and Pierre Bonnard, and the exquisite linearity of the classic miniature art practised during his years spent with Mohammed Sharif. The artist has lived a life which has been deeply engrossed in art and he continues to follow his routine of decades — painting throughout the day and often into the late hours.

In 1962, Naqsh showed his work in Karachi for the first time. During his youthful years he participated in the ongoing art scene in the city with rising interest and popularity. But in 1969 he began to feel he needed to focus solely on his work and so abstained from showing his work in public exhibitions till 1996.

Naqsh withstood numerous offers to exhibit his work in foreign art capitals as well as those at home. In his poetic musings, he compared the experience of years of research and study to the grain of sand that torments the oyster while creating the pearl.

The artist began to exhibit his work again from 1996, when a series of exhibitions took place to the great satisfaction of art enthusiasts and students who flocked to the showings. Exhibitions of figurative work, pigeons, woman and pigeons, mother and child, Prajnaparamita (body of sutras and their commentaries that represents the oldest of the major forms of Mahayana Buddhism) followed. And after an extended tour of France, a homage to Marino Marini, in which the power and beauty of the horse was emphasised.

Finally the unique modern calligraphic variations worked in diverse media and titled ‘Modern Manuscripts’ were shown in a ‘Retrospective Exhibition’ held at the Mohatta Palace, Karachi in 2004. These paintings were linked to his earlier years’ youthful art study. Eager to learn more of his own natural heritage, he began to study the history of calligraphy. He was fascinated by the diversity of scripts used in the art and he began to practise the art of calligraphy.

The qualitative analysis of the artist’s work in the discipline initiated a new vision. In each of the artist’s series he has achieved great mastery reaching a level of perfection that is the fruit of years of striving. In the current exhibition one must laud the amazing achievement of the artist to create the number of paintings that are his life’s obsession.

The artist’s ability to focus for long periods on his subject, allowed him to express a contemporary continuation of calligraphy using a modern grammar while preserving the refinement of the tradition.

In June 2013, Naqsh mounted a two-part exhibition of calligraphy paintings, ‘The Painted Word’ at the Albemarle Gallery, London; a recent body of work that consisted of 400 paintings. The contemporary calligraphy shown in Pakistan is a continuation of the event. The artist has painted separate bodies of work for London and for the galleries in major cities of Pakistan; each collection offering the complexity of a dialogue between the traditions of Arabic gestures and the contemporary art of Western Modernism.

Recognised as the outstanding artist that he is and honoured accordingly by way of national awards, Jamil Naqsh is an artist who has become a living legend in his lifetime.