LAHORE: The Revivers Galleria, in Gulberg, saw the vividness of colours when Nisar Ahmed’s paintings adorned its walls. ‘Satrangi’, which was the title of the art exhibition was a collection of paintings – oil and acrylic on canvas – producing one of the loudest, most colourful effects, each layer resonating the power and opulence of his brush.
In each work there is a woman shown only till her waist, and sometimes lower, revealing a bare midriff, with a skirt underneath her cholee, but never the legs. She wears a dupatta and a tight ‘choker’ around her neck, replicating the ethnic rural dress work by the women of Sindh. Even the pattern is the same.
The fact that the legs and feet are never fully shown may reveal the lack of freedom of the rural woman.
The faces are stylized inspired heavily by A.R Chughtai’s large cat-like eyes, and pouting rosebud mouth, An exaggerated female form, heavy outlines, textures and intense colours all point to the expressionist style of painting that Nisar Ahmed has.
The canvas has not one place which is devoid of any bold colour, and even the colour white seems to be coming right out of the painting to hit the audience. Combinations of bottle green, red, ochre, and blue all also point to the naturalness of rural life.
But these paintings do not just remind one of rural life; they are also reminiscent of Mughal art, once again A.R Chughtai’s inspiration among the many other miniature style artists.
In almost every painting perhaps again highlighting the entrapment of women, there is a bird along with a cage. Sometimes the cage door is open, with no bird. At other times, the bird is outside the cage, and sometimes the bird is inside the cage.
Another recurring element of the dream like atmosphere is a moon. A poet’s inspiration of beauty, romance, or even dreams, the moon here too may symbolize the same. The expressionism of the miniature style is what makes the painting unique, and almost takes the edge of the usual precision in Mughal miniature drawings.
This is more dream like, even driving off towards surreal sometimes, as acrylic gives Van Gogh like layers to the paintings especially in the backgrounds. It is also interesting to note that the front vision on the woman’s face reveals the lines of symmetry that an artist usually erases later on.
These lines, marked in a geometrical cross on the face, are in fact, even more darkened at the end of Nisar’s painting. Another interesting notation is the colour of the eyes. Nisar has used the boldness of colour to such an extent that even the eye colour of the woman varies.
In one painting it is even yellow, while the dark skinned man who appears in only one painting, full of intrigue and mystery, has a red eye colour. This painting is the most different with the presence of the man. The moon hovers above them in the middle, while the man looks at the woman. Superficially this may appear to be a romantic scene, however Nisar’s work, which has also shown elements of imprisonment in women, here too shows the woman bend her face downwards in more of submission than in romantic shyness.
Her skin tone is pallid, and white, while the man is dark, almost a stranger to the colours she has in her personal world.
Imagining the female through Mughal miniature
