Gallery6 pays tribute to legendary
artist on his 30th death anniversary
Islamabad
To commemorate the 30th death anniversary of Sadequain (which fell on February 10), Gallery6 is once again paying tribute to the legendary artist through a unique exhibition. In 2015, the homage was paid through ‘Sadequain aur Mein,’ in which the artists related their work with Sadequain’s paintings.
This year, artist Fariya Zaeem has been invited to paint Sadequain’s verses in her style of abstract paintings. The exhibition has been titled ‘Naqqash se kuch bol raha hai qartas,’ a line taken from one of Sadequain’s quatrain.
Fariya’s artistic journey began as an 11-year old, painting still life and nature in oil and water colours. In 1996, she graduated in Communication Design from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and spent 11 years with advertising agencies. Currently, she is working as the Marketing Head of Soneri Bank in Karachi. This is her fourth solo exhibition, the second one in Islamabad, besides six group exhibitions in Karachi.
Fariya calls herself a contemporary expressionist painter. She has used visual language of lyrical abstraction to create her compositions. Her portrayal of quatrains is a total departure from reality, which is in sharp contrast to the way Sadequain painted his quatrains. The artworks have no conspicuous imagery; instead, it take liberties through colours and forms without bearing trace of any reference to anything recognisable, yet successful in creating the spirit of the verse or quatrain.
As one enters the hall, the very first painting involves the viewer with beautiful and powerful expressionism of ‘Aik phool ke mazmoon ki khatir yani … alfaz ke kantoun mein houn uljha hua mein.’ Similarly, on another verse ‘Han apni spaeedi ki zaban se yani … naqqash se kuch bol raha hai qartas,’ the movements of brush strokes are such as if an image in white paper is holding a brush for the artist and urging to paint. The texture and colours are soft and serene, adding sensations of whispering and beauty to the composition. Likewise, there are many others that draw significant attention and pleasantly surprise the viewer by the success of the artist.
Water colour is Fariya’s preferred medium as she enjoys the translucent effect it brings to the substrate. She has experimented with wet-on-wet, dry-on-wet, salt technique, shrink-wrap, bubble-wrap, dry flat, round and all kinds of brush strokes and bleeding effects. She also enjoys the juxtaposition of both water colours and acrylics to bring paradoxes and contradictions in her work. She believes that merging of two opposites brings an interesting procreation on the substrate such as the play of transparency and opaqueness, dark and light, or ying and yang. She has explored expressions in diptych and triptych templates too. Interestingly, ignoring the current norms, she has kept the prices of her paintings very low ranging from only Rs10,000 to a maximum of Rs80,000 for large artworks.
Discussing the exhibition, the curator of Gallery6 Dr. Arjumand Faisel said, “Fariya’s paintings are based on lyrical abstraction that primarily conveys a sense of the larger spiritual outlook. Her work is more about a certain temperament, a desire to communicate concepts, thoughts, ideas, and emotions abstractly, beyond merely exploring art principles of composition, tone, value, line, hue, texture, etc. Because of these strengths, about 18 months back, we gave her the challenge to paint verses of Sadequain in her contemporary abstract expressionist style. Today, and one can see the outstanding results.”
Commenting on her experience of painting for this exhibition, Fariya stated, “I have always observed a streak of madness in the great Sadequain’s work, a spirit of a true Bohemian in the world of words and images. On being given this challenge, I was overwhelmed, curious and at the same time honored to paint the essence of the legend’s quatrains in my contemporary, abstract expressionist style. It has been a unique and an evolutionary experience—a humble attempt to capture the true spirit of each verse in each dedicated painting.”
The exhibition will be inaugurated today (Thursday) by the Ambassador of Germany, Ina Lepel, at 5.30 p.m. and will continue daily, including Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Gallery6, Al Abraaj Center, Super Market, F-6. Mr. Salman Ahmed, founder of Sadequain Foundation, USA, has come all the way from California to participate in the event.