A study of faces and landscapes
KARACHI: A three-day exhibition of contemporary artists’ works commenced at the Arts Council on Thursday evening. The painters whose exhibits are on display range from some of the known names in Pakistani art to the relatively less known. The more than 60 artworks are done in different media and almost all of them try to explore the different facets of nature.
It would be an understatement to say that Abdul Hayee’s landscapes are breathtaking. He has this inherent ability to bring out the tactility of a scene with remarkable ease. Nature for him is his beloved, or so it seems. It is not just a spiritual affinity that he feels with the natural world, but the physical aspect is just as important that enables him to make his watercolour paintings appeal to the tactile sense of the viewer more than the visual sense.
Zainab Ali chooses the abstract route in drawing landscapes and impresses with the boldness of colours and the candidness of strokes that she uses to express herself.
Akram Spaul never disappoints with his realist or super-realist work. In fact it would be wrong to classify his creative endeavours, for what he does is that he freezes a moment in time, and the only static thing in that moment is that it’s open to interpretation. The blue and white window isn’t just a part of a house that the artist must’ve seen or been to. What he does with his picture-perfect oil-on-canvas piece is that he turns the window into a character — a neat, unspoiled character.
Farrukh Shahab studies faces (oil on board) as figures. These figures seem fragmented. They are not. They are variants of a face that changes complexion according to situations. They may be hypocritical and innocent at the same time, depending on who is the person they’re attracting attention of.
Kohari discusses the same theme (oil on canvas), that is, the faces, and adds the ‘mask’ factor to it. He does it in a crafty manner because he conveys his message through the sternness of the countenance.
But Mansoor Aye’s ‘Moon Face Composition’ (oil on canvas) does the trick with the sadness of the subject’s eyes. The face and the eyes just don’t go together, poetically speaking.
The highlight of the exhibition is Sunil Roger’s painting ‘Bekhudi’ (oil on canvas). The girl that whirls in the middle of the canvas redefines sensuality by being self-absorbed and uncaring of the world around her. It’s a masterpiece.
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