Ahmed Zoay’s paintings on display

LAHORE
RENOWNED artist and former Principal of National College of Arts Salima Hashmi will inaugurate exhibition of Ahmed Zoay’s paintings and art historian Marjorie Husain’s book on Zoay ‘Where have all the flowers gone’, at the Hamail Art Galleries today (Monday).
The posthumous solo exhibition of Ahmed Zoay’s paintings is a fascinating journey through the colourful labyrinth of Zoay’s artistic skills and a colourful reflection of this unique artist. The exhibition is a vivid and rare glimpse into the life and work of this great artist, who, arguably, can be dubbed as the ‘Van Goh of the East’ Zoay spent a good part of his life travelling in Pakistan and many countries of the world. He stayed much longer in Germany than any other country besides Pakistan. A restless, vibrant and a weird imagination distinguished Zoay from other artists of his age and time. He, in the eyes and minds of many who had an interaction with this master of his arts, was a reclusive, difficult to communicate man and a free soul. His sensual paintings and a bohemian lifestyle are the hallmarks of Zoay, a rebel throughout his life till the day he died in 2014.
Viewed as individual piece his work seems inspiring, bold and creative but collectively his works only expose the web he wove around himself and to which he falls prey every time he starts to paint.
The book ‘Where have all the flowers gone, is an in-depth account of Zoay’s fascinating journey in the 70’s, a happy and most time as a young artist and a free spirit in search of solace, roams around the globe.
Majorie Husain has immortalised Zoay through this book which also carries personal statements of colleagues and fellow artists as well. The book is an honest and accurate account of Marjorie’s long sittings with the artist in Lahore after his return from his over two decades long odyssey. Muhammad Ahmed Zahir, better known to the world of art as Zoay, was born in 1947 - the year of Partition, and he was just a few months old when his family migrated to Pakistan.
His Father Ghulam Mohayuddin, who was a member of the Royal Indian Army Medical Corps and he and his family was transported to Walton, Lahore at the time of partition.
The posthumous exhibition of Zoay tells even much more than words could describe, as his mesmerising creations leave the viewers spellbinding and take them to another world, a world full of colours, flamboyance and that it was obvious to all who knew him that Zoay’s passion was; Zoay loved to draw and paint and his talent was recognised by his supportive parents.
Salima Hashmi stated about Zoay in the book ‘Zoay has not concerned himself with his contemporaries, choosing instead to be a lonely enfant terrible. A free spirit, Zoay defies restraint or measured evolution’.