Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Gallery Louvre Paints a Spectrum

MUNIR AHMED

Gallery Louvre, on Wednesday, presented the flickering visions of whom two artists, A S Rind and M Hussain, belong to Sindh, while the third participant Natalia Kakar is a Ukrainian. Interestingly, the images they paint belong to the same soil. Despite the varied media and treatment, experimentation with line and colours is common among them.

All three artists are struggling to express their thoughts and visions about their surroundings. Somewhere in their experimentation, the spontaneity merges with creativity to bring out an uncommon flair.

A S Rind has shown, in his expressionistic forms, the women from his region. Doe-eyed women with long necks are the usual and phenomenal visual treat when we talk about the best eastern art. He has continued the tradition with his own narrative. He has added poetic verses of renowned poets Mirza Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, which disturb the flow of rhythm in the imagery.

Born in 1960 in Rahim Yaar Khan, Rind - with an immense amount of talent and a four-year diploma from Karachi Arts Council - has been painting since 1984.

His present work is in oil on canvas that shows off his inspiration from his rich culture, which he expresses in the form of motifs and jewellery adorned by the female figure in his paintings. Rind’s paintings carry a strong cultural influence of his area, as his paintings are deeply influenced by the regional aesthetics, splendour, colours, and motifs.

He has participated in for over thirty exhibitions with ten exhibitions at international level. His work is getting tremendous popularity at national as well as international level.

Experimenting with colours, Rind has given effects of embossing and carving to his paintings. His works reflect heavily the faces and moods of the women of his native land adorned elegantly with ethnic jewellery in distinctive styles.

Rind says Cholistan, Thar and Rajasthan are what influence his paintings and it is mainly the colours and moods of those areas that I enjoy depicting.

Acrylic bubbles make M Hussain Chandio’s work more experimental. This is the first time Chandio has exhibited his work in Islamabad. The talented artist from Jamshoro keeps practicing with a variety of mediums and techniques in a contemporary fashion.

This is his eighth exhibition that he preferred to call it “Sundar Chahra” that he tried to form through the dot art technique, an unusual form of expression in Pakistan.

Alina Saeed, curator of the exhibition says, “Up-close the paintings look as abstract art however at the distance you can see a very clear formation of a face in a very tight frame. Treated in a manner of chunk close large faces in big canvases are painted in small grids. Chandio has certainly synthesized the colour hues with various fragments of colour dabs, which are not only challenging but also excite the aesthetic interest.”

In his artwork , Chandio very carefully crops close-up faces mostly of rural women. What is most challenging in this technique is that not only do the faces take forms but so do their expressions and ornaments.

The forms are developed in small grids and circles that are meticulously outlined with the darker tone. These darker tones are then weaved together, creating an expression in the portrait, this is the unique and interesting part of his work.

In his own words, “Everything created by God is beautiful. Sometimes the beauty of life stops us in our tracks. We are arrested by it and are bounded by it. Faces of our loved ones possess such beauty in my humble way I try to capture this beauty on my canvases.”

Natalia Kakar carries the art from her origin, Moldova that is a hub of Asian and European culture. Her art is also a mixture of western ideology with eastern additives, and typical native treatment.

She has titled her work as “Myths and Beauty” that is mainly carved out from the pen-and-ink sketches. Mostly known for her paintings Natalia unleashes her fantasies in her sketches. Her fantasy goddess wears different faces, from Greek myths to eastern brides but her European art school education reveals itself in every line.

She says, “Goddess myths have inhabited the human imagination and spirit for thousands of years, representing the eternally feminine qualities that pattern women’s lives. Each of the goddess myths is different just as each goddess is unique – motivated by different values and priorities. Each has goddess-given characteristics, both positive and potentially problematic ones. What I do is draw them on paper.”

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