Painting in Pakistan

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PBH00855Regular Price: US $49.95Our Price: US $40.50

Description:
After 20 years of struggles, frustrations and interruptions, Ijaz ul Hassan finally prevailed in publishing his meticulously researched book- ‘Painting in Pakistan’. During the course of this delay, Ijaz mentions in the preface that this gave him a chance to revisit India, meet some more authorities on ancient and contemporary works after which he had to revise and update his work with the newly acquired material. As a result this 2nd edition contains some additional 24-color illustrations and a better representation of the younger generation of artists.

Written and researched over a period 20 years, ‘Painting in Pakistan’ is the first-and only-publication of its kind. It not only gives an overview but also insights into the works of our painters. As an academic, a writer on art and as an artist, Ijaz ul Hassan approaches his subject with a great deal of knowledge and understanding.

Review
As an academic on art- having himself taught art at the National College of Arts (Lahore), Ijaz’s knowledge on art is quite impressive. Using history as a backdrop, he has managed to trace the roots of modern as well as ancient art to the schools from which they have been derived. Although nothing survives from the pre-Buddhist period the few works unearthed in Pakistan show that the Buddhist frescoes were based on a close observation of life and contemporary society.

The Moghul style, governed by arabesque or floral patterns complete with ‘bird motifs for decorating of figurative walls’ secures a favorable image in the author’s eyes. Akbarnama and the Jahangirnama are critically compared. While Jehangir it seems, had a scientific interest in the appearance and character of the natural world, Akbar wanted to “reproduce as faithfully as humanly possible, God’s creation and his creatures”.

DesiStore # PBH00855 ISBN 969-0-10106-4 Edition Second Year 1996 Pages 162 Weight (kg) 1.21 Weight (lbs) 3.06 Pics (color) 106 Pics (b/w) 49 Dimensions: 32x24x2cm HB/PB Hard Back

The author feels that the Moghul contribution to paintings in Pakistan cannot be overlooked. Having influenced the Hindu religious texts-‘The Mahabharata and Ramaya’, this style also found favor with A. R. Chugtai- the most well known painter of Pakistan- who in his effort of filtering out the British influences on paintings revived the traditional Moghul style of art. Fayzee Rahamin’s concious efforts of achieving the same have also been mentioned.

The novel value of the book is that Ijaz has chronologically listed the famous and not so famous painters starting from the British raj to the present day. A brief description and some works of the named artists follow. Ustad Allah Baksh with a preference to European romantic paintings has produced a much acclaimed ‘Sohni Mahewal’. Amrita Sher Gil- the first painter from the subcontinent to have undertaken a formal study of western painting- in her quest to ‘paint the silent images of infinite patience and submission’ has vividly portrayed the poor people of the subcontinent in their element. Zainul Abedin’s work reflects emotional intensity as obvious in his portrayal of some 3 million people suffering from famine in Bengal.

Iqbal Hussain in his painting has usually used the ‘dancing girls of Lahore’ as his subjects. ‘Two sisters’ is one such painting in the book where Iqbal has captured the emotions of the two sisters quite dramatically- the older women can be seen resigned to her fate and a sense of loss and contempt for the society can easily be noticed in the eyes of the younger.

Sadequain, A. R. Chugtai, Aminul Islam, Iqbal Jafree, Ghulam Rasul, Zainul Abedin, Fayzee Rahamin, Ismail Gulgee and Imran Mir are just some of the artists whose works have been compiled in this elegently written book.

Painting in Pakistan