Painting exhibition: Artists urged to learn using imagination

Hajirah Mansoor and her husband Mansoor Rahi display their works at Unicorn Art Gallery

LAHORE: “Artists should be discouraged from copying illustrations using digital media in the start of their careers. They need to first learn to use their imagination,” painter Hajirah Mansoor said on Monday.

She was speaking to The Express Tribune on the opening day of an exhibition titled New Works. The exhibition featuring works by Mansoor and her husband Mansoor Rahi will continue at the Unicorn Art Gallery till February 21.

She said she had displayed some Indo-Mughal miniature paintings. She said the paintings had been made using relief texture, high texture and physical and optical texture techniques.

Mansoor said that she and her husband had established an art school in Karachi on their return to the country to provide a platform for the growth of budding artists. “We thought the art scene in Karachi lacked a healthy environment for new artists. Therefore we decided to start the art school,” she said.

Mansoor said she had always tried to incorporate new techniques in her work. “I have used water colours with acrylics in some of my paintings,” she said. She used the phrase fixed-wash technique to refer to it.

She said she had started her career as a miniature painter. “Later on, I contributed to modern miniature painting,” she said.

Mansoor Rahi said he had done his first painting in 1961. “I had started painting in a bid to discover the mystery of God’s creations. My work has evolved over the years. My recent work deals with self examination,” he said.

Unicorn Art Gallery owner Seemah Niaz said it was the second exhibition of the couple’s work at the gallery.

“Hajirah Mansoor’s work is inspired by modern romanticist ideas. She has taken up the classical aspects of the Mughal era as the subject of many of her paintings,” she said.

She said many of Rahi’s paintings were on contemporary themes like cubism and super cubism.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2016.