In the wake of mounting festive excitement of the season, the pleasant onset of winters has brought the aptly timed exhibition of four remarkable painters at the Fine Art Pakistan Gallery, Karachi, titled, ‘Winter horizons’, under the curatorship of Rafia Maniar. According to Asma Ahmed, the gallery’s CEO, this repertoire of 21 works by Maqbool Ahmed, Chitra Pritam, Moazzam Ali and Mohammad Ali Bhatti, centred mostly around aboriginal women, has been organised with the aim to further fortify the country’s cultural identity.
Ahmed’s paintings are like a frozen moment in a dream; a momentary occurrence that has been halted at its most ecstatic juncture. The floating phantom-like female figures with their trailing chiffon attire, present numerous variations within a single canvas. The vivid hues of the delicately rendered lines provide endless visual pleasure as they undulate gently and lead the viewer from one spot of the canvas to another. The alluring torsos have been deftly modelled substantiating the artist’s exquisite drafting skills. The multiple figures, fading occasionally, portray the subject imagining its own spirit in a more euphoric state. Furthermore, the use of geometric shapes to alleviate the visual tedium speaks of the artist’s contemplative inventiveness.
A painter with the eye of a hue-sensitive maestro, Pritam is outfitted with a super-filter to reject morbid colours. His paintings, a familiar and gratifying experience with most connoisseurs, are gradually moving up to the centre-stage of contemporary art.
Being a consummate artist, the artist has proven his individuality over the decades by producing work that has been acknowledged by galleries and collectors worldwide. The paintings on display include a variety of the ‘Buddha’ series and a seascape with fishing boats.
The exceptional acrylic application is Pritam’s hallmark which builds up in layers with rich pleasurable strokes and indecipherable, yet arresting, textures. It is obvious from his current works that he continues to lunge forward in his quest for the right tint with the most unusual wavelength.
Ali manifests his watercolour extravaganza with the liberal use of the medium on almost anything and believes in orchestrating his strokes that sway back and forth to some desert symphony. In the current set of paintings, watercolour on canvas remains to be the odd challenge for the artist who has skilfully proven that it is the vision that makes the painting; the medium is merely a delivery conduit. Redeemed from the shackles of medium, the artist’s expression is direct and pure and his innovation of the beguiling temptresses continues to remain limitless.
Every painting of the buxom females, some reclining and some with their clay gharas, has a distinguishable character. Ali’s sensuous sirens, with arms full of bangles and desert attire have gradually become a style mark, specifically because of the aggressively bold and irrepressible manner in which he paints them.
A recognised portraiture virtuoso, Bhatti chooses to depict the indigenous people of the region who are usually ignored for their trivial existence. He believes that it is necessary to heighten their individuality so that the culture gathers acknowledgment and continues to serve as a source of inspiration to advance it further.
With a remarkable command over drafting, he has the ability to express the true character of the models that he paints. The profuse backgrounds, laden with action drips, motifs and bold pigmentation, portray that Bhatti can paint exactly what he imagines with the inner eye.
Switching from oil paints to acrylics, it seems, has given the artist a greater edge over his previous works in terms of speed, freshness and freedom.