Kaghazi hai pairahan her pekar-i-tasvir ka opens at Alliance
KARACHI: Readers of Urdu digests cannot disassociate the art that accompanied the stories and essays published in them from the exhilarating reading experience. The delectable illustrations and drawings are effective on two counts: one, they provide readers with a visual interpretation, albeit by virtue of encapsulation, of the subjects; two, they add an aesthetic dimension to the grey text. The late Sajjad Ahmed Siddiqui (1919-1989) was a remarkable artist. He worked for many Urdu magazines, including Shama (in Delhi, before migrating to Pakistan) and Akhbar-i-Jahan, Jasoosi Digest, Subrung and Alami Digest. His son, Zafar Siddiqui, has taken after his father, earning a reputable name in the same field. An exhibition of artworks created by both Sajjad and Zafar Siddiqui titled Kaghazi hai pairahan her pekar-i-tasvir ka opened at the Alliance Francaise on Saturday.
It has on view a decent variety of artworks that the artists made for different digests.
The hallmark of the pieces on display is the uninhibited emotive aspect of the illustrations that sets digest art apart from the rest of the genres. The characters, particularly female and especially young women, are shown as pensive creatures (in accordance with the crux of a majority of stories) whose beauty is augmented by the pensiveness. This is done by using gentle strokes and drawing contour lines that describe the face (read: tale) with poignancy.