Chemical paintings: Mansur Aye’s ‘missing’ artworks go on display

Celebrated artist had unique method of experimenting with colours

ISLAMABAD: There are few artists who are able to completely master their particular medium despite not having received any formal education in the medium. There are fewer still who have gone on to successfully experiment using different mediums.

In this regard some 23, previously unseen, paintings of the late master-painter Mansur Aye made while using a specific chemical process, were exhibited at Gallery 6 in Islamabad.

While experimenting with chemicals and paint, Aye had developed a unique method to create artwork. He would first apply a light coating of chemicals to remove or wash colours on the printed pages of a magazine or photograph with brush or cloth.



Then, by using these dislodged colours on the page, he would use these to prepare the background of his paintings.

Once the background had dried, he would use a black marker, or a pointer pen, to draw figures over it in his set, consummate style, to complete the composition using minimal lines.

Previously, only four of his paintings made using this technique were displayed in a retrospective exhibition held at gallery the in February 2014.

However, 18 months ago, around 40 of his chemical paintings were discovered in the collection of one of Aye’s close friends. These paintings had been created over photographic scenes from the USA, New Zealand, Russia, France, Italy and Canada.

Aye, who decided to change his second name Ahmed and adopt the first letter of the alphabet A (writing it as Aye) to sign his paintings, was a self-taught artist and did not conform to any school of art. Born in Delhi, he spent most of his life in Karachi and passed away in April 2008 at the age of 67.

He was one of the early members of the USIS organized Sketch Club in the 1950s in Karachi. There were no art schools in the city at the time and Aye attended courses along with his friends Masood Kohari and Jamil Naqsh.

Aye experimented with diverse subjects over the years, but he became famous for his moon-faced girls in different guises and sizes, and the spontaneous movements of his brush strokes that continued to create and reflect their moods. These were enhanced by the application techniques of the color dominated with linear gestural movements.

His latest posthumous exhibition, titled “Chemical Paintings”, was inaugurated by MNA Shireen Mazari. The exhibition will continue till December 4 at Gallery6.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2016.