Pakistan has inherited many things from the colonial rule when it became the sovereign state on August 14, 1947, as there was no source of knowledge and information developed other than what the rulers adopted and then left to themselves.
The British took control of a state that was largely monarchical under the Mughals, but when they left, it had to adopt the famous democratic system of politics; the thrones, where the emperors used to sit, held the governor general, presidents and prime ministers for the time to come. The army, social institutions, music, sports, haute couture, gastronomy, architecture and administration, in short, all spheres of life absorbed and displayed a prolific plethora of postcolonial Western influence, since this doctrine was considered the best and most appropriate because of its association with the ruling and powerful class.
The language adopted the modern and non-traditional style due to a full liberation from Persian and partly from Arabic; the two foundational languages that had remained a mark of distinction and wisdom for the Muslim community, from Neil to Kashghar. Modern Muslims, especially after being placed in the status of modern politics under the entirely new and liberal policies of the Anglo-Indian Mohammedan Conference and the academics at Aligarh College, which later became a university, were well aware of the new philosophy, psychology, architecture. , sciences and all other branches of literature and arts, this class took over after the birth of the new state of Pakistan on August 14, 1947. Therefore, what we introduced into the common Pakistani arts was mainly a inspiration from early 20th century western modern art; the fragments of postwar American or European postmodern art.
In the early days of Pakistan, Anna Molka Ahmed was in Lahore, a migrant artist from the UK who also cradled the first generation of Pakistani artists at the Punjab University Department of Fine Arts which she had founded in 1940. This department produced the first batch of four masters who later shaped the early years of Pakistani art; they were Anwar Afzal, Zakia Malik Sheikh, Razzia Feroz and Nasim Hafeez Qazi.
On the other side was Zubeda Agha, who was trained under BS Saniyal and an Italian POW Mario Perlingieri. Later, she received artistic education in the west, so she was under an immense influence of western style and technique. Zubeda rejected the traditional painting style and emerged as the first modernist colorist despite resistance from native critics.
At the same time, Anna Molka was trying to capture indigenous themes related to religion and folklore, but as she was expressionist in her technique, the local fauna and flora caught on after expressing themselves through the ‘knife and trowel’ technique of his . Anna sometimes simply squeezed the tube of color onto the canvas and dragged it with her knife to achieve the desired spontaneity and raised texture. Therefore, what she produced was indigenous in subject matter but very Western in terms of technique.
Since the native style was attributed to the Mughal school of miniature painting which later gained popularity in the Himachal Pardesh mountain states (Basohli, Chamba, Guler, Kangra and Bilaspur) until the Sikh era. Ustad Haji Sharif was one of the leading exponents of court painting due to his ancestors’ long association with the royal court of Patiala, a major Sikh state in now Indian Punjab. After his migration to Lahore, Ustad Sharif imparted his knowledge and passed on the latest lighting and book illustration skills at the Department of Fine Arts and Mayo School of Arts (NCA) Lahore.
Another Ustad, Allah Bakhsh, in the vein of the traditional and realistic style of the East, contributed to the infancy of Pakistani painting. Allah Bakhsh painted the rich culture and folklore along with a touch of romanticism in the subject especially when he put the popular love stories like Heer Ranjha and Sohni Mahiwal on canvas and at the same time under the influence of modern art and painters romantic. from the West, he will stage mystical canvases such as “Talism-i Hoshruba”.
During this process of evolution, the secular style of miniature painting was breathing in Calcutta, where Abhiander Nath Taygore was a great advocate of the gauche technique. This style inspired the fluid hand of Abd al-Rehman Chughtai, who evolved the Bengali style of miniature painting to unequaled heights. Other than Chughtai, no one could retain the standards of that quality of lyrical line, smooth layers of diffused pigments, and stylized approach, though few attempted to familiarize themselves with the technique, but the wisdom and education Chughtai acquired in the field. of local and foreign art, and the intelligentsia that surrounded him in the form of his renowned friends, made him the only example of his own style; the Chughtai style.
Later, Pakistan was bewitched by a Sadequian wizard: a painter with theatrical qualities, dramatic subject matter, and a very stark quality of line that weaved texture within the frame to unleash the philosophical and poetic themes the artist drew on. a great moment. level. The need to communicate loudly and clearly made Sadequian switch to calligraphic painting, which later became his identity and was exhibited on large scales such as ceilings and murals in the Lahore Museum and Mangla Dam respectively. Ismail Gulgee was the other advertiser of the calligraphic style of painting which, being conceived as “Islamic art” as opposed to figurative art, achieved popularity among religious groups. Ultimately, non-figurative art gained market acceptance and flourished in the unfavorable circumstances of the military-Islamic regime of the 1980s.
If we look at the academic inspirations, apart from Anna Molka, we can find Shakir Ali standing tall and exclusive on the scene with his very simple and rhythmic paintings in flat shades of reds, oranges and blues along with variegated lines. The textures of him within the flat color areas were simple but masterfully designed and cleverly balanced. His presence at the National College of Arts Lahore caused many to follow him in acquiring new and modern techniques that he had in his hands during his academic stay in London.
In Western art, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin are taken, later as initiators of cubism, expressionism and fauvism. On this pattern, we could divide Pakistani art into three dimensions, the followers of Chughtai, Sadeqauin and Shakir Ali. However, since the latter was the director and teacher of a renowned art institution, the impact of him was immense. Thus, we could see his followers in the form of Panj Piyare (the five dear ones), following the pattern of Akbar’s Navratna (Nine Jewels). These were Raheel Akbar Javed, Sheikh Safdar, AJ Shamza, Ali Imam and Moyenne Najmi. Another reason for this popularity was the style and themes that Shakir introduced to the new generation of the late sixties and early seventies, more practical and corporeal in execution, even going so far as to capture the most abstract and intangible ideas, on the contrary. from Chughtai Miniatures or Sadequain’s poetically thematic canvases.
Pakistani institutes imparted education on Western lines, while the old masters of conventional native styles mostly took their art to their graves, with a small exception of a few of their students.
In calligraphy, Ahmed Pervez and AJ Shamza are the names that contributed to the collective form of Pakistani art based on their individual style, but some others made the difference to a greater extent. Khalid Iqbal is one of what could be called the master of landscape painting, with his local colors and Western technique of creating lovely foregrounds and depth in the backgrounds by virtue of his control of tonalities formed through diffused shadows. He introduced modern realism to Pakistan, forcing many to feel inspired. Khalid’s presence, first in the Department of Fine Arts and then at the NCA, academically inspired a generation of artists under his fatherly attitude. The immersed but still soft canvases of him recorded the different hues of the Pakistani soil.
Saeed Akhtar, was another talented NCA graduate, a proficient draftsman who solved his drawing problems by adopting and applying observations he found while molding sculptures; a way to become an expert in figurative painting and three-dimensional portraiture. The realistic and accurate interpretation became his mark of respect.
Zahoor al-Akhlaq, with his philosophical and abstract approach, strengthened the conceptual foundation of modern art in Pakistan and led NCA to embrace modern styles and techniques in painting.
Punjab University produced Collin David, the most talented and certainly the most controversial student of Anna Molka for numerous reasons, but a wonderful cartoonist of divine linearity with which he was blessed. His figurative work showcased his anatomical expertise which enabled him to introduce Pakistani art in the style, with an exaggerated note, of Rubens and Raphael.
Zulqarnain Haider, began as an extension of Khalid Iqbal, embracing landscape painting in an almost similar style, but gradually, the restless Kashmiri blood accepted new challenges that nature set before it in changing light, twigs in between, and dirt. stretched; he captured them from their feet to the vanishing point on the horizon, or even beyond.
Ghulam Rasul added stylization in his Landscapes and enriched the colors of his paintings. He too used the small hills of Potohar as a gray backdrop behind the lush green fields.
Contrary to the Modern Realism of Khalid Iqbal and company, Zubeda Javed emerges as a painter with a strong imagination. She is one of those rare female painters from Pakistan, who embraced the modern technique of painting landscapes and cityscapes, in a manner that many considered to be close to semi-abstract and impressionistic. With an intuitive color palette and painterly brush, she produced a unique and aesthetically strong display of color, emerging from deep backgrounds. Her painting style fostered the modern approach to color, composition, and light.
English literature inspired Mian Ijaz al-Hassan to think and act in accordance with the new ideologies that were in vogue in the 1970s, his thematic and radical paintings based on communist doctrine disturbed the deep sleep in the upper halls. However, he excavated the fragile soil of the Pakistani land with the ‘red scythe’ and sowed the seed of the yellow Laburnum (Amaltas) tree; a fundamental symbol of his paintings.
Iqbal Hussian shed light on the hot and rotten issues associated with an abode of notoriety; the red light zone. His urban landscapes can take you into the dark alleys and rustling walls of the old city, while his portraits of bulky, carefree-looking women make social commentary on the unaccepted side of society.
On the other hand, Ghulam Mustafa created a labyrinth made up of the narrow shady paths of the walled city and the lush green mountains of the northern areas with their soft pastels on the textured surface of pastel sheets or the large well-stretched areas. of rough canvases with oil colors.
Bashir Ahmed started the Miniature Painting Department at NCA which inspired many young painters to adopt this conventional painting style. Bashir’s effort to restore the tradition of miniature painting resulted in the contemporary miniature that revolutionized this genre in Pakistan.
With torches in the hands of all those mentioned above, there were many others along with them, passing from the Pakistani palette to the new generation of painters entering the 21st century.