“The Litany Against Fear

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.”

– From Dune by Frank Herbert

se the word art or artist, and the overwhelming response can go anywhere between ambivalence to mockery. Because we see art as something that can overwhelm an ordinary person, if they’re not an artist or a student of art history.

We mock and dismiss what we don’t understand. But, you need not be (a) an artist or (b) an art history major to learn and appreciate masters and understand distinctions, for example, French artists such as Claude Monet or Edouard Manet or Edgar Degas, to fall in love with Asim Butt’s Rediscovered Works.

The exhibition at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture’s gallery makes you come back for more if you can manage it. As you look into his drawings and try to find meaning, it will change on you.

The first rule for an outsider is to keep an open mind and realize that art is subjective. Personal self-expression seeps into an artist’s work, whether it is deliberate or not.

Think of Asim Butt’s work, and what is most palpable is how dedicated the late artist was even in his student days.

If you visit the same exhibition numerous times, in his case, something distinctive but different jumps at you each time.

You also don’t need to be familiar with his later works to admire the audacity of his work from a time long gone.

The recent exhibition at IVS features work that is at least 17 years old and represents his days as a student and graduate of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS).

His practice, back then, went from “paper to charcoal, canvas to paint, and sketchbooks,” as he worked upon them.

There is nothing basic about his work, nor is it a mere anatomical study. If the eyes are dancing, the face isn’t. In fact, some 
drawings that are focused strictly on faces
depict a sense of anguish. It is also true that
it has to do with perception.

“Creativity takes courage.” – Henri
Matisse

This exhibition not only provides an insight into Asim’s mind, it reflects the sincerity and resolve with which he worked. Is his work daring in nature? The answer is not binary. The important thing is to rid yourself of confirmation bias before embarking on this creative journey.

Charcoal on paper was one of his mediums and may be the most arresting one. If you see his exhibit once, you will see a kind of self-expression, a personality emerging from those drawings. There seems to be almost a need, a deep desire to study and create the many intricacies of the human body, which is what probably led Butt to identify as a Stuckist.

There is nothing basic about his work, nor is it a mere anatomical study. If the eyes are dancing, the face isn’t. In fact, some drawings that are focused strictly on faces depict a sense of anguish. It is also true that it has to do with perception.

Beyond charcoal, the other mediums such as paint on canvas, similar ideas exist to a sensible degree.

These show Asim took one subject and saw it in all its intricacy. It is a depiction of ideas informed by social and political concerns. You have to keep searching each frame to know what the artist, in this case Asim Butt, is saying.

The cornerstone is studying the human body and here, Asim could not hide his questions or find answers.

To master drawing in charcoal to painting on canvas to his sketchbooks, Asim stands out because of his attention to various elements. The social and political fabric of the times reflects in this collection, whether it is a drawing or the painted canvas. A kind of despair is palpable in the eyes; there is hopelessness that also comes through even when you’re not looking at a charcoal drawing of a face.

The body language in his work, as a student and a graduate, depicts no answers, but a sense of rush unfurls as he grew as an artist.

There are no apples or dancing figurines.

What we can say is that even in his early years at IVS, there was a desire to understand what cannot be understood. As Asim continued to draw his muse - the human body - from the outside, his compositions remind us that art is not for certain people only. Here was a man, inspired by his surroundings, trying to capture the ruthlessness but also the beauty and the glory of his subject. If beauty is the glory of God, Asim Butt through his work has reminded us of the beauty and the beast, within and without.

– Asim Butt’s Rediscovered Works exhibit will be on display at IVS until September 15