Retrospective and new paintings
By Ameer H Ahmad
KARACHI: The Goethe-Institut is exhibiting journalist, cartoonist, editor and artist Ajmal Hussain’s works titled “Retrospective and new paintings”.
In his latest series of paintings that are being described as “Fusion”, Hussain has used several different mediums including acrylic, oil colour, dry pastel, metallic colours and gouache – all fused together ultimately culminating into a surreal, almost poetic form of expression. The compositions are a mixture of geometric forms, abstract symbolism and organic motifs dominated by figurative icons.
In one of his works titled “Sitting Pretty”, a fusion painting on canvas, he beautifully executes the anthropometrics of a sitting posture in geometric shapes. Another interesting fusion piece is the “Lady with Boa” in which he drapes the snake-like pelisse around a beautiful woman.
On the other hand, “The Runners” is an impressionist painting from the ‘70s. He paints women with beautiful eyes and a demure countenance, most strikingly visible in “The Courtesan” in which a woman with exquisitely proportioned facial features holds a red rose delicately, looking straight in the viewers’ eyes.
He paints intricate jewel patterns as necklaces and bracelets on his women, making them look from an ethereal world, the perfect example of which is “Self adornment” where he paints a lean, beautifully decorated and bejewelled woman.
Hussain’s artistic career spans over fifty years. His first solo exhibition sponsored by the Pakistan Embassy was held in October 1952, where he displayed Impressionist paintings at Club Laredout in Bad Godesberg, Bonn, then capital of West Germany. He was most probably the first Pakistani artist to have an international show. Since then has had over 100 exhibitions all over the world.
Currently based in Paris, he has been a journalist from 1946 to 1972, beginning his career as a political cartoonist in an English daily. In 1953, he was the editor of a weekly magazine in Pakistan after spending three months with a magazine in New York (USA). At the same time, he formed the Fine Arts Society and was a member of the Arts Council of Pakistan.
He had been exposed to Parisian galleries during his visit in 1950 to France and was fascinated by the French Impressionists like Cezanne, Renoir and Degas.
“Retrospective and new paintings” is his first solo exhibition in Pakistan after 1986 and it would go on until February 26.
Source: Daily Times
Date:2/17/2010
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