A departure from art for art’s sake

KarachiWhile it is beyond doubt that what is being purveyed today, especially by the mushrooming art galleries, as art is a total departure from art which those with conventional tastes know it to be. Gone are the days when art was a balm for the vision, when art was a

By Anil Datta
October 01, 2015
Karachi
While it is beyond doubt that what is being purveyed today, especially by the mushrooming art galleries, as art is a total departure from art which those with conventional tastes know it to be. Gone are the days when art was a balm for the vision, when art was a purely aesthetic proposition.
Long gone are the days of Leonardo De Vinci, Rembrandt, Goya, or the English landscape painters like Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, artists whose works inspired the aesthetic in a viewer, artists whose works brought back memories and association, both bitter and sweet.
Today, art is more of a brain teaser and in these days of abstract and semi-abstract art, one has to strain his imagination to get the connection between the artist’s work and his thought processes.
However, an exhibition going on at the Canvas Art Gallery, which opened on Tuesday evening, despite works which keep the viewer guessing, has works which show lots of promise in the artists. For one, there is Rabia Ajaz who seems to have specialised in switchboards but the skill in her paintings is remarkable. She paints these switchboards in a manner that they really look so real, three-dimensional. These are acrylics on water board. Her skill certainly has to be appreciated whereby she gives the switchboards such a real look, impossible to detect that it is just a picture.
Then of course there’s another work by Rabia which to a conventional art connoisseur would look anything but art. It is a set of keys of various sizes pasted on to the wall, not a painting, not a pen sketch, but actual keys. Perhaps in modern art jargon, this could be referred to as situational art where the artists just don’t have to go through the trouble of drawing lines and sketches. It is interesting, really revolutionary and an innovation in the world of art.
Of course there too are some works which are very pleasing to the eye like the floral and other designs by Sanie Bokhari. The exhibition, which runs up until October 8, is a must-see for those with a propensity for things interesting.