The world of Kaleem Khan is split in many hemispheres. Like all of us, he is in one place at one time and like all of us, he exists on multiple planes at the same time too. Being a painter, teacher and family member is nothing unusual but choosing to paint with a specific style and subject is an extraordinary feat.
Much like seasons, painters often shift from modes and mediums of expressions as well as switch their points of reference and imagery. But there are artists who are fixated on singular themes and techniques. One can quote Paul Cezanne who painted a particular landscape, view of La Mont Sainte-Victoire, over and over for at least 60 times, and identical still-life objects in many compositions. Khalid Iqbal rendered rural and urban scenes usually from only one area or recurring motif of trees, waterways, animals and mud houses.
Another artist from home, though he has been living in the UK for many years, is Jamil Naqsh who portrays women, birds and animals, employing the same arrangement of elements and postures.
For anyone not familiar with the craft of painting, this routine sounds boring and tedious. For these artists, on the other hand, subject is merely a matter for applying paint and constructing surfaces which can enchant the viewer and excite the painter himself. More than visual pleasure, the artist seeks to represent the essence of reality with its transitory as well as sensory qualities.
Kaleem Khan belongs to the same league. His mastery in capturing visions of nature, people and places through sensitive and selective strokes has been admired since he was a student at the National College of Arts (1978-1982). I remember watching him paint in the studios but, being a freshman, didn’t have courage to enter the graduating students’ workplace and have a closer view. Occasionally, when the seniors left, I stepped in and saw -- rather savoured --the delightful paintings executed by Khan.
Kaleem Khan retains that Midas touch to this day. Whatever he depicts -- much like Cezanne’s aesthetics -- is built with delicate patches of delightful brush-marks. A similar treatment of subject is visible in his current exhibition which is one from Nov10-24, 2016, at the Royaat Gallery Lahore. A total of 36 oils on canvas are on display with a majority of them connected to Balochistan, his home province. Amid these you can spot nomadic maidens, men tending or perched on their animals, mountains, valleys, houses, shops and boats rendered accurately.
Looking at these canvases one becomes aware of three choices for Kaleem Khan: Nature, Culture, Art. Apparently vague descriptions, these indicate the three different options available to the painter. In some works, you see an attempt to ‘represent’ Balochistan with its nomadic culture, men in traditional garbs, girls wearing conventional colourful dresses, all engaged in activities that have not changed with the passage of time.
For instance, a group of men with large turbans riding on horses and almost lost in a cloud of dust could well have been from the eighteenth century. Likewise, the girl with her flock of donkeys might belong to the pre-modern era. Or, men on camels or in caravans show a picture without the limits of a specific period. They may seem beyond the measure of time, yet are tied to a location, a provincial culture.
Khan is not the only one focusing on these themes in Pakistani art. Other artists, mainly from Sindh, are also sketching nomadic women in colourful attires. What differentiates Kaleem Khan from those dabblers is his command in depicting intricate details in a precise manner. Essentially, these works are not as convincing as others from his solo exhibition.
These other works comprise views of mountains and land, both barren and fertile, with occasional built constructions but mainly consisting of trees, fields and plants. Kaleem Khan assumes mastery in depicting all that without effort, since the lines of objects and corresponding colours are delineated with pleasure and precision. In a few or hasty strokes, Khan manages to make much of his surroundings ‘alive’ and almost breathing. Houses, mounds, people gathered at a tea stall, and vegetation, all serve to create samples of how light invokes vibrant tones. Perhaps, the most important characteristic of his art is his method of attaining appropriate shades and hues by putting vivid hues on top of each other.
One may ask that if an artist is able to invoke that tactile quality in his work and to such a great degree, why should he be concerned about adding a cultural segment or an arty touch to his work? Both these directions in his work -- whether convincing or not -- convey the presence of doubts about the power, possibility and potency of formal language.
In the same exhibition, there is a canvas in which the sincerity of observation is blended with the subtlety of a subject. It is the view of a butcher’s shop with slaughtered goats hanging in a line on hooks. The craft of painting, visible in other paintings, is evident here too but due to its subject Kaleem Khan introduces, rather indicates, the cruelties in our surroundings. Violence, target killing, bomb blast, state torture and other such atrocities are all suggested through this metaphor but are painted quite seductively in the guise of art. To quote Cynthia Ozick: "It is art’s sacred ancient trick to beautify pain, to romanticize the shadows of the irretrievable."