Pakistani Artists: Traditionalism and Identity (1960-1970) PDF

# Traditionalism and Identity (1960-1970) ## 1. Abdur Rahman Chughtai: (Pakistani, 1894–1975) Chughtai was born in Lahore in 1897 in the area known as 'Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran', the second son of Karim Bukhsh, in a family descended from generations of craftsmen, architects, and decorators. Chughtai...

# Traditionalism and Identity (1960-1970) ## 1. Abdur Rahman Chughtai: (Pakistani, 1894–1975) Chughtai was born in Lahore in 1897 in the area known as 'Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran', the second son of Karim Bukhsh, in a family descended from generations of craftsmen, architects, and decorators. Chughtai briefly learnt naqqashi from his uncle Baba Miran Shah Naqqash at a local mosque. After completing his education at the Railway Technical School, Lahore, in 1911, Chughtai joined the Mayo School of Art, where Samarendranath Gupta, a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore was Vice-Principal. After leaving the school, he made a living for a while as a photographer and drawing teacher. He eventually became the head instructor in chromo-lithography at the Mayo School. In 1916, Chughtai's first painting in a revivalist 'oriental' style appeared in the Modern Review. He had his first exhibition in 1920 at the Punjab Fine Art Society. He also exhibited with the Indian School of Oriental Art during the 1920s, by which time he had become quite renowned. His work contributed greatly to Lahore's burgeoning modern art scene. Whilst he predominantly worked with watercolors, Chughtai was also a print-maker, perfecting his etching skills in London during visits in the mid 1930s. (See our previous exhibition 'Chughtai's Etchings: Editions of a Master' for more on this period). In his sixty years of artistic creation, Chughtai produced nearly 2000 watercolours, thousands of pencil sketches, and nearly 300 etchings and aquatints. He also wrote short stories, and articles on art. He designed stamps, coins, insignia and book covers. He was also an avid collector of miniatures and other art. He published three books of his own work: the Muraqqai-i-Chughtai (1928), Naqsh-i-Chughtai (c. 1935) and Chughtai's Paintings (1940). The Muraqqa-i-Chughtai was a sumptuously illustrated edition of Mirza Ghalib's Urdu poetry, with a foreword by Sir Muhammad Iqbal. It is regarded as the most significant work of Chughtai's career and in its time, was considered the finest achievement in book production in the country. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Chughtai came to be regarded as one of the most famous representatives of Pakistan. Chughtai's paintings were gifted to visiting heads of states. Allama Iqbal, Pablo Picasso and Elizabeth II were said to be amongst his admirers. Chughtai's early watercolours take from the revivalism of the Bengal School - his Jahanara and the Taj, for instance, show the influence of Abanindranath Tagore's painting The Last Moments of Shah Jahan[3]. By the 1940s he had created his own style, strongly influenced by Islamic art traditions, but retaining a feel of Art Nouveau. His subject matter was drawn from the legends, folklore and history of the Indo-Islamic world, as well as Punjab, Persia and the world of the Mughals. ## 2. Ustad Allah Bux Allah Bakhsh was born in Wazirabad but he always lived in Lahore and owned this city as his original abode. His birth year is usually mentioned as 1895; however, according to a radio interview in 1964, he recalled it as 1892, when his father went to Africa. Allah Bakhsh's father sent him to a Madressah to study Arabic and Urdu which he could never understand as his memory was designed specifically for visuals and images and not for alphabets. As early as the age of five, Allah Bakhsh started apprenticeship with Master Abdullah, who was a known artist (Naqash) in the Mughal Style miniature painting. At his shop-cum-studio “Abdullah and Sons” at the Regal Chowk Lahore, he was assigned to practice letter 'A', on a wooden slate (Takhti), for almost three years before proceeding to write 'B' and 'C', making the ABC of art a tedious job for the young boy. There, he learnt to grind colours and acquired the skills of making replicas of the Mughal miniatures by tracing and copying the original image. His father was a colour-maker (Rangsaz) at the Mughalpura Railway Workshop Lahore, and that should be the one reason that he wanted his son to be adept in this field. In 1913-14, Allah Bakhsh started working for the theatrical company of Agha Hashar Kashmiri at the Bhati Gate Lahore, and was exposed to scene-painting for the first time and practised figurative, portraiture, landscape and cityscape patterns. Allah Bakhsh towards theatrical and dramatic visuals based on imagination and memory. Other than Western plays, the famous folktales and mythical anecdotes were also among the popular melodramatic subjects for which he had to create scenes for the backdrops and publicity. The artist moved to Bombay in 1914, for a better future as a sign-board and backdrop painter. During his stay in Bombay from 1914-19, Allah Baksh was striving for survival rather than establishing his identity as an artist. He joined Roop Naraine Photographic Studio to assist Moeen Sahib, an artist from Delhi and a disciple of Master Hussain Bakhsh, the student of Master Sher Muhammad, who served Mayo School of Arts Lahore as vice principal, and was also the mentor of Master Abdullah his first teacher in Lahore. This link created a brotherhood between Allah Bakhsh and Moeen. He learnt the basic skills of painting from Ustad Abdullah - an established name in the traditional Mughal style miniature painting at Lahore. He developed keen interest in the Western-style painting with more precise perspective and proportion; suggesting deep consideration of realism and worked in oils and on large-scale canvases, a technique that travelled to the sub-continent from Europe. In his pursuit to learn the non-traditional modern style of painting, Allah Bakhsh copied many works of the Western masters and tried out his own colour palette and local themes which, in its early execution, seems a poor replica of the European masterpieces. However, with the passage of time and maturity of skill, the artist evolved his technique and perception of the subject up to a level that is today known as the Allah Bakhsh style. The artist might not have been well-equipped with any ideology or have represented any art movement or school of thought in painting, but he was a natural learner and apprentice who, by practicing hard, could attain a level of sophisticated draftsmanship. Other than landscapes, Allah Bakhsh appears more obsessive with the depiction of folktales like Heer Ranjha and Sohni Mahiwal or the village girls gathered to fetch water on and around a well. He painted the masterpiece of his life Talism-i-Hoshruba (mind-bending magic), based on the well-known fables of the Persian epic literature ## ZUBEIDA AGHA Zubeida Agha was among the first Pakistani Modern Artists. After the creation of Pakistan in 1947, she was the first artist to hold an exhibition of her paintings. She helped bring the modern idiom to Pakistan. She is the obvious beginning for this representation of our contemporary art practice. She is also named 'The Grande Dame of Pakistani art'. She was awarded the President's Medal for Pride of Performance in 1965 and Tamgha-e-Quaid-e-Azam by the Government of Pakistan in 1982. _"Without sincerity there is no true art!"_ Modernism in Pakistani art is said to have been heralded by Zubeida Agha's first solo show in Karachi in 1949. Agha (1922-1997) was then a young woman - one who had studied political science and philosophy in college but gave in to her recurring dreams about painting. Through painting, it is said, she sought to understand her dreams - her powerful colourist style giving glimpses into her dreamscape. In 1951, she had her first exhibition outside of Pakistan at the Trafford Gallery in London. In 1952, she travelled to France with her artworks. ## Shakir Ali He was born in Rampur (India) in 1914 and received his early education at the Jamia Milia Islamia University, Delhi and Philanders Smith College, Nanital. His art journey started with an apprenticeship with the Okil Brothers in Delhi in 1937. Later in 1938, he joined Sir J.J. School of Arts in Mumbai and attained his Diploma in drawing and painting in 1944 In 1945, along with the Bombay Contemporary Art Group, Shakir Sahib travelled in South India to study South Indian sculpture, fresco painting and architecture. During his stay in Europe, he joined the Slade School of Arts in 1946 and received a Diploma in fine arts in 1949. Then he moved to France and worked with Andre Lhote; a well-known French figurative painter and sculptor. In 1950, Shakir went to the School of Industrial Design, Prague (Czech Republic), to study textile design. In 1952, he came to Pakistan and joined the Mayo School of Arts. In 1953, his work was exhibited at the III-Biennale, San Paulo and in 1956; he had a one-man show at the fine arts department of the Punjab University, Lahore. He mounted another solo exhibition at the Arts Councils of Karachi and Lahore in 1957. In his own style, Shakir Sahib evolved as a modern painter whose technique was that of a Western artist inspired more by the abstract style of expression, but whose palette was indigenous and always remained under the red, orange and blue shades. When the artist joined the Mayo School of Arts in 1952 as a lecturer, the new state of Pakistan was in its infancy and along with the migrants from various parts or India. Six years after his induction as a young lecturer, the Mayo School of Arts earned the status of the National College of Arts in 1958, which marked the milestone of establishing a matchless art institution. In 1962, Shakir became its principal His paintings mainly present the individual and non-representational aesthetic character rather than any thematic or subjective value. This aspect put his style under the abstract art and speaks of his natural inclination towards it. The artist gave more importance to the impact and expression that his indigenous colour palette would create instead of any topic or theme. For example, in one of his painting 'Woman and the bull', he presented fragility through woman and force by rendering the bull rather than presenting the shapes or images of the two. Since the artist has lived in France, his work conveys a modern visual patterns of figurative and conceptual value; the main features of Western-style painting. Shakir Sahib contributed by contextualizing and establishing the ideology of modern art, through the indigenous visual idiom of art in Pakistan. This show should be the first drop of rain, as there are many masters of Pakistani art whom we can celebrate, without waiting for their centennial year to come. ## SYED SADEQUAIN AHMED NAQVI Syed Ahmed Sadequain Naqvi (1930-1987) was born in Amroha in 1930 to an educated North Indian Shia family in which calligraphy was a highly valued skill. Little is known of his early life in India however following his early years at school in Amroha he travelled to Delhi in 1944 and began working as a calligrapher-copyist at All India Radio, where his brother was also working. He worked here until 1946 before graduating from the University of Agra in 1948. Following partition Sadequain moved to Pakistan. rise to fame began in 1955, when he exhibited a number of works at the residence of Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a liberal patron of the arts. Soon afterwards Sadequain received a number of important governmental commissions for municipal murals, and held numerous solo exhibitions of his work. It was around this time that the influence of Picasso began to appear strongly in Sadequain's paintings and sketches. In 1957 Sadequain visited the arid and remote seaside location of Gadani. Here he first encountered large spikey bushes of cactai, which were to become a key theme and metaphor of his work throughout his life. To Sadequain these plants became representative of violence, man's struggle against hardship and nature's inevitable victory over adversity. They also influenced his calligraphic works, which he revealed was the source of all his artistic outpouring: "In the anatomy of these gigantic plants I found the essence of calligraphy. Everything that I have painted since then - a city like Rawalpindi, buildings, a forest, a boat, a table or a chair, a man, a mother and child, or a woman-has been based on calligraphy, which in itself issues from the structure of the cactus." Sadequain won the Pakistan National prize for Painting in 1960, and left for Paris later that year, at the invitation of the French Committee of the International Association of Plastic Arts. The following few years were to be some of the most important for the young artist in terms of his artistic development, and it was whilst in Paris that he began to achieve international critical acclaim. In September 1961 he was the laureate winner of the Paris Biennial's 'Artist under 35' category, and was awarded a scholarship which allowed him to remain in Paris, and helped catapult him into the spotlight. During the early 1960s he travelled to Pakistan as well as throughout Europe and to the USA, and held numerous solo-exhibitions, including at the Commonwealth Institute Galleries and New Vision Centre, London, and at Galerie Presbourg and Galerie Lambert in Paris. Sadequain returned to Pakistan in 1967 following his father's ill health during a visit to France. His output for the next few years was prolific and in the early 1970s he published a huge volume of poetry. It was during this period that he concerned himself mainly with calligraphy, as well as with state funded murals, including those at Mangla dam, The State Bank of Pakistan, and the ceiling of Frere Hall, Karachi. ## A HISTORY OF VISUAL ART IN PAKISTAN: STUDYING THE RESISTANCE AGAINST ZIA-UL-HAQ'S MILITARY REGIME The direct result of the politics of oppression, wherein, a dictator, pursued his personal agenda of power, imposed a lopsided ideology and through the use of force and other tactics attempted to reassign an identity. The response of the people who were directly or indirectly influenced by this political, cultural and ultimately individual manipulation varied across communities and professions. .Since an artist does not work as an isolated individual but as a member of a society, his or her personal dynamic receives a continuous input from the social fabric. The artists therefore felt the whole change, perceived the impact that it had on identity and then in their own distinct ways expressed their take on the issue. Some of the artists used their creative energy within the set parameters and rules of the government, while others, violated. The first kind of the artists resorted to landscape painting and Calligraphy. Calligraphy as Islamic identity and landscape as portrayal of land's glory were the most famous genres. Calligraphy was a legitimate art in Islam as it was about beautifying Quranic verses. Many of the artists, who were great exponents of figurative art turned towards Calligraphy as in dictator's version of Islam, figurative art was prohibited. Zia-ul Haq himself patronized the art of Calligraphy. Sadequain and many other artists were commissioned by the state to produce works of Calligraphy. This political decision had its cultural impact. The landscape painting in particular became a highly specialized and respected endeavor. Calligraphy and landscape painting flourished due to their strong identification with national pride. The second kind of artists who had anti-government ideologies or sentiments were arrested, punished and imprisoned. These artists produced probably the most powerful symbolic work in the history of Pakistan. The personalized distinguished use of symbols became their forte. This was quite an intelligent move on part of the artists since the Subcontinental mindset had this history of emotionally responding to symbols. Moreover, symbols were not direct and were loaded with meanings. The artists skillfully used and juxtaposed them to communicate new meanings often expressing their critical response to the oppressive government. These artists, through their works highlighted the atrocities and enabled their viewer to focus and rediscover his or her actual identity. The movement was shared by various artists in different degrees, however, two artists, Abdul Rahim Nagori and Ijaz-ul Hassan responded in a symbolic language with strong political undertones. ## Ijaz-ul Hassan Due to his ideas and political activism, he was arrested in the first year of Martial Law and was detained in Lahore Fort for interrogation. This work was produced a few years after his imprisonment but clearly depicts the actual mode and nature of events that took place after the Martial Law imposition. The painting portrays a bouquet in which flowers are replaced with barbed wire. Ijaz-ul Hassan uses irony as a device of communication. The barbed wire bouquet symbolizes that what is being presented to the people of Pakistan as promise of opulence is a fraudulent act. In actual, the mode of government is comparable to barbed wire, which is a symbol of restriction by force. With this painting, Ijaz-ul Hassan exposes the hypocrisy of the military regime that manipulated Islam and the people of Pakistan for its agenda of attaining and then sustaining power. ## Abdul Rahim Nagori The King of Clubs, shows Zia-ul Haq on a playing card as a king. This imagery was in sharp contrast to the popular interpretation of the leader, which through various means of political propaganda assumed the title of Mujahid of Islam. Nagori, through this painting, puts the leader in perspective and hence compels the viewer to see the actual reality. Abdul Rahim Nagori, Saraswati under stress, Oil on canvas, 1985 Saraswati is shown playing a musical instrument but the composition is such that instead of an environment of serenity, we witness utter chaos. One of her arms is being held by a soldier, the other is cut into half and in the backdrop a wolf is shown with an axe. She, nevertheless continues to play music. One may interpret Saraswati as a symbol of Pakistani women who faced restrictions because of the amendments in law and the mounted cultural pressure. ## Iqbal Hussain. In this painting, he has shown how women have been forced to veil themselves and have been put to a subordinate position by force. The women are holding their hands over their heads in a remarkable portrayal of injustice. The face expression tells a long story of oppression and abuse; it is rendered indifferent. The title of the painting Hands Up quite effectively presents what the politics of oppression was all about. ## Salima Hashmi The manifesto signed by 15 Pakistani female artist pointedly depicts the awareness of sensitive woman. It stated the grievance of women highlighting the character of socio-political environment as irrational and anti-art. The manifesto supported the role of female artists and spelled out the significance of their contribution towards promoting a rational and civilized society through practicing art and also teaching it to students in various institutions. The manifesto clearly expresses the determination of female artists which certainly came into being under strict censorship. The censorship imposed by the government resulted into a greater thrust for breaking the prison. In Freedom, Salima Hashmi shows three identical women encapsulated in ice cubes with mouths covered with cloth. The ice cube symbolizes the fact that the life of women was put into a situation where no activity was supposed to take place, the mouth covered depicts that they were not allowed to use their mind or speech to proclaim their rights and identity. The three women probably represent three social roles of women of being mother, wife and daughter. The painting shows that all three modes were treated equally. The color scheme of the painting is also symbolic and shows the contrasts, conflicts and tensions associated to the state of women. The red color symbolizing bloodshed and death is the focus of attention. It was precisely this state which was portrayed by Rabia Zuberi in Blind Justice insightfully depicting the plight of women. Laila Shahzada's painting from her series entitled Chadar aur Chardiwari. The title of the series shows how a false identity was imposed and then made culturally popular and acceptable. It shows how a woman was pushed back from her social self and professional growth. Laila depicted the women in the folds of a Chadar with her head rising above. The composition uses lyrical lines providing the viewer a sensation of flow. In this context, one observes a sitting women but there is light radiating from her symbolizing her inner strength and determination. ## Asim Butt He was perhaps the brightest and most vibrant painter in Karachi of the new generation. Asim Butt, could definitely paint and how, but it was his dynamic symbolic art done on a whim on the streets that grabbed everyone's attention. More than an artist fraternizing with the hoi polloi, he was an artist who liked to observe life at places like Abdullah Shah Ghazi's mazar and paint murals on walls that that would be wiped out by the less artistically sensible authorities of the city. People close to him say that it broke his heart, whenever that happened, but even so he soldiered on. For Asim Butt, art was more than earning a livelihood and no one can say why he painted more eloquently than him. _"I paint because it allows me to stare shamelessly, to be able to flesh out an idea, emotion, or commit to an image a shadow of the world around me. I paint because there is a spillover of energy within that must find form or else it will haunt and twist me. I paint to commit an act of magic and pleasure, for myself, for the love of my audience, and for an abstract notion of my muse's gaze. I paint to validate my Self and to discover surprises within and without. I paint as a penance for my inadequacies. I paint to understand the world around me and to own and disown what I desire or dislike in it. I paint as a political act: to express my power over power larger than myself. I want to see, to fill an absence in the world. I paint in conversation with other images, comment, critique or tribute."_ Asim loved painting on walls on the streets. He painted heartfelt murals near monuments like Abdullah Shah Ghazi's mazaar. And then there were the sporadic bursts of inspiration that came from his gut as an activist, like painting STOP in bright blood red on the wreckage of cars after the riots that followed Benazir Bhutto's assassination or eject signs right after Musharraf imposed emergency. Asim recounted these exploits with glee. "With some kind of french rap egging you on, park your car in a place where you can make a dash for it, carry your stuff in a back pack and pretend that you're in a video game. I did the police piece over two nights at three spots within a kilometre of each other, running through Saddar in the dead of the night. First night i turned 'police' into 'lice'. I was hollered down by the police the second night I went to layer the Club Road piece but just relocated by first of course making a dash for the car, which had been strategically parked." It must've been such fun outwitting the dreaded 'lice'! **20/20 banknotes:** Benazir Bhutto, Noor Jehan and Fatima Jinnah. Asim Butt was whimsical by nature. These digital collages he made of bank notes he wished existed were a huge hit, featuring three iconic women in our history. Anybody familiar with Asim's work will see him having more of a proclivity towards true representations of the things he painted rather than leaning toward representations more conceptual and abstract. And while he took on the mantle of being a proponent of Stuckism, he wrote to a fellow Stuckist based in Tehran in an email that "the idea of stuckism doesn't really have a formal movement behind it in Karachi. It's basically just me who is flying the banner although a lot of people are doing Stuckist painting." ## SAIRA WASIM (1975) o explore social and political issues, her work uses the contemporary miniature form. Her work offers a voice against ignorance and prejudice, also through the use of caricature and satire. SAIRA WASIM she went to Lahore's National College of Arts, where she graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. Her art has been shown in a number of museums. Her public collections? Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Many of her family members originally lived in Qadian (a small village in Indian Punjab). While she was born, her parents moved to the suburbs, so she grew up in Allama Iqbal town (a south-western suburb of Lahore). Currently, she lives in United States, but she is a contemporary artist from Lahore (Pakistan). SAIRA WASIM uses the miniature style of painting to make political and cultural art. At the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, in Tokyo, you can admire some her works. From the earliest that she can remember, she have been very fond of drawing. SAIRA WASIM has carved a real niche for herself, with her innovative, meticulously crafted miniatures. Her early memories of living, include seeing fields all around our house, where her parents still live. Her father wanted she to have a real knowledge of village life, because he wanted me to know how people live in poverty. For her, miniatures have a transcendental role, because they are a creative vocabulary for to engage in a dialog with viewers, towards a humane society.