LAHORE – Mohsin Kiyani’s works were displayed at Ejaz Art Gallery in an informal opening on Friday. Kiyani’s inspiration from Sufism and its poetic and artistic roots is apparent in his works, all done in oils on canvas. Oil paints have a characteristic of blending subtly into surrounding colours.
For this reason, the depth of the painting emerges with great strength. Also, like acrylics, oil paints too bring out the most vivid colours, to make the painting more forceful in its expression. This is why the expressionist styles have a better result with oil paints.
Kiyani’s choice to paint the great Sufis and their themes, therefore, itself means that he has chosen to show them in a dream like past, with each image blending gently into the next within the same painting. The figures are like mental images, or thoughts and memories, faded away, yet strong at the same time, while the backgrounds are like dreamscapes. Bearded saint like figures are a continuous presence in his paintings, while surrounding them are others who are obviously revering them.
One such painting is that of the whirling dervish, holding a large tambourine like instrument, his head tilted half up half down, symbolically read to be “slaughtered” for God and by God (Raqs-e-Bismil). Music seems like an important theme. Sure enough in many pictures there are people singing or playing the Oud, a typically eastern stringed instrument, most popular in the Middle East.
They are also playing the flute, or using a large moon-shaped percussion drum. In their costumes the setup is without doubt old, belonging to the era when perhaps thinkers such as Rumi wandered in his land, sharing his philosophical teachings to people. These folk artists, in context of the Sufi theme of Kiyani’s exhibition seem to also be journeying spiritually through music. In order to make the paintings appear to be ancient discoveries, the artist has also used calligraphies in several places inside a single frame.
These words are inscribed vertically along the bark of a tree, or can be found in a halo around the head of a horse. The scenes within the paintings also seem to be set in Iran. ‘Bakhtiari Girls’ is one such work as the name itself suggests. The artist’s intricate works are perplexing, as one cannot quite understand what each painting says, but that is the beauty of each work. One must find ones way through this labyrinth made by a paintbrush, where some figures stand in the foreground, but there are several faces ‘hidden’ within the other colours that one must search for.
Much like music, the artist understands the significance of sports too among a people. Here in ‘Choogan’, a Polo game is being played, with the polo sticks acting as a straight anchor to the composition. All the players on the backs of their sturdy brown horses have gathered at one point, trying to snatch the ball from each other, their sticks reach the ground in one convergence.
It’s apparent that Kiyani’s background of Iran’s most romantic city, Shiraz can be seen from his works. It is therefore no surprise that the man who has lived his life in the city of Shiraz, would be affected and deeply impacted with the art still alive in that city. From the beautiful, majestic and ancient Takht-i-Jamshyd’, to the most fabulous tile work, Kiyani could not have escaped aesthetics while growing up in Iran.
Besides, the city has been home to many Sufi saints, including Sheikh Saadi, Molar Sadra Shirazi, Mansoor Halaj, Vesal Shirazi, Baba Kohi, Qutb al-Din Shirazi and many others.
