Deep, soothing and absorbing thoughts on canvas

An exhibition of paintings by Maqbool Ahmed titled “Transparent Melodies” kicked off on Thursday at the Fine Arts Pakistan and would last till September 30. An NCA graduate, Ahmed acquires his own entirely unique and distinct style to distinguish himself among his contemporaries.
“Maqbool Ahmed is basically a landscape painter and is very much inspired by the legendary landscape painter, Khalid Iqbal,” says art critic Nadeem Zuberi. “But going through his artwork, I sense that his work shows an entirely unique and distinct style other than his teachers,” he adds.
“He has acquired a diverse mode of painting to distinguish himself among his contemporaries. He creates a vague ambiance through reflections as well as refractions of his subjects. An aura of mystery is formed by the reflections within reflections and the object and subject diffuse in those various reflections making it impossible to identify the real subject.”
Zuberi says that the treatment, tones and values of Ahmed’s paintings portray deep, soothing and absorbing thoughts. “Some moments away from the real world, deviating from the usual and entering the new world – a world of distinctive sensation and visual appeal. An unseen energy is felt while having an eye contact with his paintings. The alluring female images reflecting again and again on the canvas create a melody of its own.”
On Ahmed’s art technique, Zuberi says that the crystalline geometrical shapes give a new angle to the artist’s work. “He applies vivacious colours in his own way the pleasing hues of blue, green, red, yellow and ochre are well balanced with the darkness of black and brightness of white. Each painting has a detail composition harmonious to the reflections and refractions of his thoughts.”
Renowned artist Prof Dr Mohammad Ali Bhatti says that on the horizon of art activity, there are a few serious and modest artists in the country who are consistently creating art and displaying at various art galleries in Pakistan and abroad, and among them, Ahmed is one of the most imaginative painters who is consistently engaged in creative activities and experimenting with mediums, techniques and surfaces for creating expressive visual vocabulary in his art.
“His subjects are unique and exotic. His diction in art is like poetry revealed through colours. It appears to be that Maqbool during his studies at NCA was greatly inspired by the ideas and styles of surrealist painters such as Man Ray, Rene’ Magritte, Marc Chagall, De Chirico, and Salvador Dali,” he says.
“However, the content of Maqbool’s paintings remains “Desi” on enigmatic social issues in which sensuous female figures are delicately placed in an open space. Figures and objects appears to be floating in the defused romantic milieu, overlapped by crystal like angular cubes in the interest of creating dream like surreal ambiance in the compositions,” he adds.
Dr Bhatti says that he has witnessed Ahmed engaged in the process of painting in his studio, softly touches contours with yielding brush strokes, applying supple thin layers of pigments and natural dyes on canvas. “His compositions are very carefully knitted with flying ribbons or horizontal and vertical strips in the interest of unity in variety. His aesthetic sensibility and conceptual richness is like playing a symphonic melody with cool and transparent colours. His ability to balance the richness of composition through juxtaposition of dark and light hues as well as managing equilibrium of positive and negative areas of the canvas is superb. In spite of dynamic interwoven elements, contrasting and bright colors and soothing dreamlike mood of Maqbool’s painting brings pleasure and harmony.”
Giving an insight into the artist’s personal life, Dr Bhatti says that after graduation, Ahmed remained studious and consistently contributing in local and international art galleries, having many solo and group shows on his credit in recent years. “On a personal level, as I know him, he is very friendly and easygoing guy, a friend of friends, a “yaar badshah”, always cracking jokes and having fun with friends, and at the same time initiates a kind of open discussion on aesthetics and art issues in the country.”