It was in the 16th century in Tabriz, when the second Mughal emperor Humayun observed Persian miniature painting with admiration and brought with him two accomplished artists on his return to India. After decades of artwork thereafter, the distinct style that emerged from fusion with native styles soon began to be referred to as Mughal miniature painting. Today, this art has taken a whole new dimension, humbling traditional barriers and advancing with every passing day.

At the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, miniature painting gurus Haji Muhammad Sharif and Sheikh Shujaullah were followed by Ustad Bashir Ahmed, who for the first time in the history of miniature painting, introduced a bachelor’s degree curriculum at the NCA in 1982. The programme continues to produce artists of global acclaim such as Shazia Sikander, Imran Qureshi, Fatima Zahra, Uzma Qureshi and Saira Waseem amongst others.

Born and brought up in Larkana, Nazakat Ali Depar, in pursuit of his passion for art, graduated from the NCA with a distinction in miniature painting in 2008. During the college days, driven with a ferocious appetite for learning, he gathered rare techniques of miniature painting from the virtuoso miniaturist Ustad Bashir Ahmed. Depar devoted himself to the traditional art which led to a cascade of local and international exhibitions. This exposure not only gave the artist global admiration but also carved a hastened niche in the local contemporary art scene.

Miniature painting has made a major impact on Depar’s work and it is a technique that he intends to hold on to. His mission is to present this traditional art in different ways by evolving his own language. In the last three years, he has noticed a change in the way miniatures are being executed and approves of the liberated approach which has taken this art to a new level.

Depar’s recent exhibition at the Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi, included a fresh set of works based around his keen observation and experiences during the railway journeys from Larkana to Lahore during the college days. With inference from his personal journey; physical or metaphorical, he painted people, animals and the suffering.

He also based his works on train tickets which allowed him to move out of the rural environment into the urban world of opportunity. After every encounter with trivial objects and sights, he dared himself to develop a visual language so that he could instill interest in the variety of subjects that he explored. Utilising the abundant knowledge of miniature techniques, he resolved the image and surface characteristics through undaunted excesses and unconventional routes.

Amongst the display, the large format gouache-on-vasli paintings (exceeding 24 inches in width) with forms of dogs and lions were indeed the most captivating, particularly for their unconventional composition, simplicity and colour. The philosophy portrayed by the belligerent and vagabond animals relates to the current issues of wantonness and the lack of sense of belonging.

A pair of boxed relief arrangements with red thorns also depicts the prevalent environment of pain and difficulty. One of these paintings indicates the ruthless external element symbolically represented by a Mughal court archer aiming at the thorns with intention to aggravate the suffering.

Another example of the Depar’s fusion with the traditional values of the discipline of miniature painting is obvious from his works of a man with a parrot. These handmade vaslis are reminiscent of ‘The tutinama’ (literal meaning ‘Tales of a parrot’), an early example of Mughal painting made in the reign of Humayun's son, Akbar. Rendered dexterously, these paintings represent the culture of repeating what the servile people are taught—sans creativity or a mind of their own.

With a blatant strategy of no-risk-no-gain and the ability to fuse experience with imagination, Depar has put to use a range of ideas expressing concerns and creative solutions. The artist’s recent works at the show hold surefire promise for their originality and finesse suggesting an opportune moment.