Rich Colour palette depicts traditional heritage

Published in Pakistan Observer (29 Jan. 2011)
Sana Jamal

ISLAMABAD: The rich colour palette of the artist, A. S. Rind with a strong focus on design and pattern bring pictorial affluence to his painting show at Tanzara art gallery in Islamabad.

In his third solo show at Tanzara, the Karachi based artist A. S. Rind exhibits a natural exuberance as his latest figurative style reflect profoundly the faces and moods of the women of his homeland of Rahim Yar Khan. His ethnic long necked women are generally wide eyed, often with puckered lips and adorned gracefully with traditional ornaments.

In some of the paintings, the presence of parrot, fishes and rose with women creates an aura of romance and mystery. Occasionally Rind has also used Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s verses to enhance the romance and mystique of his paintings. All the 41 paintings including six charcoal drawing are based on the same theme more or less.

“The rich traditional heritage of the artist’s soil reverberates in his paintings of stylized women, jewellery and design” said Noshi Qadir, the curator of the gallery.

A. S. Rind’s latest work carries a strong cultural influence of his area, as his paintings are certainly and deeply influenced by the regional aesthetics, splendor, colors, and motifs. The use of the verses of Faiz is to emphasize the mood and expressions of the stylized women he paints. His paintings of this period are mostly either in acrylic or mix media.

According to his own statement Rind has tried super realism, which continued till 1993, after wards he tried his hands hand at impressionism, cubism, and the abstract. In 1988, he worked on some Quaranic calligraphic paintings and introduced a new typeface.

Musarrat Hassan, an art critic believes that “the sounds and smells and colors of his home town are forever hauntingly present in his subconscious. He has returned to them through the paintings in the present collection.” The jewelry and designs were gentle reminders that a son of the soil; has come back to announce his heritage and even though there has been an effort to stylize the figures and enhance the design element, the colors claim a distant relationship with the desert, he added.

The exhibition will continue till Feb. 5th.