And not the canvas!
Iqbal Hussain is more renowned for his socially radical and somehow controversial topics that he has been painting since long. He opened his eyes in the walled city and in a locality that has been famed for the performing arts like music and dance. Visual arts, as a genre, inspired Iqbal Hussain, up to a level where he found it appropriate for his soft, rather whispering idiom about life.
Iqbal Hussain has been a great exponent of figurative painting with a convinced approach that can be titled as the antithesis of feminism and its accepted etymology. Female figures in his paintings, do not present the concept of splendor and fragility that we associate with the woman. His paintings, rather display the other side of the society where the dialect of this term is confined to materialistic exploitation of the human nature and emotions.
Therefore, in his paintings the representation of the female body does not stand for the accepted values of a society for a woman; even in terms of sensuality and voluptuousness for which, the female body has been an icon since ancient civilizations. In his paintings, the female is neither emotionally overwhelmed nor physically amiable albeit, she occupies the frame in comparatively a non-emotional, if not objective, way with barrenness in her eyes and lackadaisical attitude in her posture. However, Iqbal creates a kind of dichotomy when he links these figures with the society through the gaze or kinesics of his figures that often can cause the viewer to become apprehensive of the situation against his or her intentions.
Iqbal Hussain has been a great exponent of figurative painting with a convinced approach that can be titled as the antithesis of feminism and its accepted etymology.
With this attitude and style, Iqbal Hussain became known as a socially aware artist within his capacity as a painter. He is among those practitioners of art who used art for life. His art is alive because it is deeply rooted in the society and culture he lives in; this applies to both of his figurative and landscape or cityscape painting.
The cityscapes of Iqbal Hussain, seem the continuity of his figurative painting as they represent the disheveled complexity of the walled city architecture, in a manner that its walls, roofs and the heavy environment adds to the unheard silence of the noisy and busy life around.
These cityscapes let the viewer wander through the intertwined streets, breathe atop a rooftop, and sneak a glimpse of the Badshahi Mosque or the River Ravi. Iqbal Hussain, who paints portraits and figures to insinuate the ‘introvert’ character of his subject through the barrenness of eyes and lethargy of posture, relates them with the surroundings they live in by painting that environment without them. This practice also serves the artist to harmonize his profound perception to the infinity of nature. Marjorie Hussain comments on this quality of Iqbal Hussain as: “At times, the artist slips away to the tranquility of the river Ravi, and restores his spirits painting the unspoiled landscape with vast skies around him. The artist paints the views from his home, and records the bustling streets that he endows with a timeless quality. Hussain is a compassionate artist, one who offers an insider’s view of a world seldom mentioned by polite society.”
The cityscapes of Iqbal Hussain, seem the continuity of his figurative painting as they represent the disheveled complexity of the walled city architecture, in a manner that its walls, roofs and the heavy environment adds to the unheard silence of the noisy and busy life around.
Many other painters have put their hands on painting the architecture complexity of the walled-city of Lahore, but their approach to this subject is, more or less, like of a visitor or a spectator, whereas Iqbal has painted this area with a special sense of possessiveness. He has absorbed the light, sight and sounds of this area as an extension to his heart and soul. He has felt the warmth of the sunlight, and have sat in those shadows before rendering them on the canvas. He looks at these alleys as pathways; he knows where they would turn or curve to intersect another narrow street, rather than considering them as mere labyrinths. Therefore, his rendering of these elements is an ‘insider’s view’ that makes Iqbal Hussain different from his contemporaries.
Iqbal emerged as a radical and notable painter of Pakistan owing to his serious concerns with the environment and ambiance where he was born and spent his early life and youth. Since he never shied away from own that locale, with all the sincerity and acknowledgement, his art is candid in its representation.
Iqbal’s portraits edify the viewer of the emotional and psychological circumstances that can cause quietness inside, while his cityscapes suggest the same outside.
