Faces of eve

Her collection includes portraits of key Pakistani women including Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto and Abida Parveen.

LAHORE:

There is a golden rule when it comes to creative expression and it is this: Show, don’t tell. And in Lahore, this year’s International Women’s Day will follow that rule. Say goodbye to the serious seminars in closed hotel rooms and halls and forget about noisy demonstrations causes interminable traffic jams. No, this year it’s all about art and cultural activities.

One delight of the day will be ‘Reading Faces Making Places’— an exhibition of paintings by  New York-based artist Tahseen Ali Khan- at the Alhamra art gallery. The exhibition will open at 5:00pm in connection with the IWD. Her collection includes portraits of key Pakistani women including but not limited to Fatima Jinnah, Benazir Bhutto and Abida Parveen.

Art critics are a tough crowd, but Tahseen seems to have won them over. This is what John A Parks, himself an artist and an art critic has, to say about her work: “The paintings of Tahseen Ali-Khan offer the rarest of treats, an eye that is both intelligent and sensual, a touch that is both sure and delicate, and a sensibility that is in-tune with both the pleasures and challenges of this world. Particularly in her portraits, the artist manages to convey an insight and depth while painting with a directness that is an effortless delight. This approach is reinforced by an extraordinary feel for color. Time and again, Ms. Ali-Khan seems to be able to find a richness and subtlety in her subjects that allows her to deploy a wide range of harmonies. In a world that is, sadly, short on miracles and wonders, here is an artist who presents us with an entire gallery full of them. As an audience our only obligation is to embrace our good fortune and give ourselves up to the enjoyment of these wonderful paintings.” Kind words indeed.

Asked about her own work, she chooses to quote the masters: “Vincent Van Gogh said, ‘How short life is, and how like smoke’. If life is like smoke, then attempting to capture the impressions it leaves on one’s mind might be like trying to trap those fleeting swirls of smoke in a jar. Though, it is life that has chosen me, as an artist I can only hope to gather, in paint, some of the countless glimmers of its brilliance. It is my belief that art should transcend differences across ages and locales - the current and the historical, the familiar and the foreign alike. ‘Reading Faces, Marking Places’ is my attempt at finding a new visual vocabulary to express, within a traditional medium, the vivid effulgence and subtle nuances found in diverse places and distinct personalities”.

Another exhibition of new works titled The Number and the Place 2011 by Lali Khalid will also open at Lahore Arts Council in connection with the IWD.

Other than the exhibits, Pakistan National Council of the Arts will also hold an evening to pay tribute to singer Tasawwur Khanum at Awan-e-Iqbal Complex today. Khanum herself will sing at the event along with some young singers who will sing some of her songs. The evening will also feature dance performances by the PNCA group of dancers in connection with the theme of IWD.

“The evening is a tribute to one of our great living singers who happens to be a woman. This is to celebrate women in general and Khanum in particular,” an official of PNCA said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2011.