Those promising, budding artists
KARACHI: Lots of changes have taken place in each and every realm, each and every sphere over the ages which have been heralded as improvement, improvisation or advancement.
Whether that really is so or is just a case of our preoccupation with the peculiar could be anybody’s guess.
Art is no exception. While there was a time when masterpieces by Constable, Gainsborough, Raphael, Goya or Da Vinci were a pleasure to behold, there came with time the various schools of art like abstractism, impressionism and others where the viewer was supposed to perceive a piece with the mind’s eye, having to exert his imagination no matter how wild and resort to all sorts of mental acrobatics to figure what the object of the painting really was.
As such, every now and then an art show featuring classical, conventional art is a real pleasure to see, something that really is a balm for overworked eyes.
One such exhibition opened at the Arts Council Monday evening. It is a show of the paintings by the class of 2010 of the Arts Council Institute of Arts and Graphics.
All the works are totally free of the trappings of brain-teasing modern art and are a pleasure to watch.
A flower is portrayed as a flower and not as a series of intersecting lines or patches of clashing colours leaving it all to the imagination of the viewer to determine as to what the work is supposed to be.
There are some works that deserve special mention. For instance, there are four paintings by Sana Farooq.
One of these is a captivating view of the sunset, complete with the collage of orange and amber clouds surrounding a sun with its dying embers fading into the horizon.
Apart from being a lyrical colourist, Sana seems to have been really captivated by the beauty, the glory of nature. The work carries a touch of mystical beauty.
The other three works are an Indian woodpecker (Hoopoe) and two cuddly birds with gaudy plumage, perched atop twiggy branches. They arouse in the viewer admiration for nature, for creation.
“I am a nature lover. I love colours of the birds’ plumage. For me it is nature’s beauty,” says Sana.
There’s a beautiful close-up of a scarlet hibiscus against a background of luxuriant foliage by Samreen Idrees, and a three-dimensional painting of a quilt design by Samra Babar.
It is so real that one feels that it is a quilt hanging on the wall. Only on touching it, it turns out that it is a painting.
Three works in Islamic art by Behzad are real masterpieces.
Arts Council Karachi President Ahmed Shah, who inaugurated the exhibition, said: “We are engaged both in the intellectual and physical upgradation of the institute and as such, have appointed the country’s most seasoned artists as teachers, including Naheed Raza, who is the principal.”
He said the institute was the oldest in Karachi, functioning since 1961, and outlined a plan on the anvil whereby there would be an exchange of art instructors and students among Pakistan, India, Iran, Bangladesh and other Saarc countries.
Speaking about the role of the art galleries, he said they were purely commercial ventures and were not imparting any art education.
“Art galleries are not producing teachers,” he said, adding that they were mere commercial propositions where artists displaying their works pocketed 30 percent of the sales proceeds. The exhibition runs up until May 22.
Source: The News
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