Arts exhibition: Da Vinci, Van Gogh recreated, again

Artist tries to portray neo-colonialism through sketches.

LAHORE:

An exhibition of graphite sketches by Hasnat Mehmood began at Rohtas 2 on Monday. The artist has tried to portray neo-colonialism, commenting on tags of branded clothes, manufactured in the developing and underdeveloped countries. 

Through his collection, Buy One, Get One, Mehmood has expressed his views on various matters of international importance by ‘recreating’ famous works of Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Andy Warhol and Michelangelo.

Mehmood said he has often noticed many western brands with tags saying Made in Pakistan or Made in Bangladesh, which were not available in the country they were manufactured in. “This body of work emerges out of noticing those tags,” he added. He said he noticed the phenomenon in the business world and put it to the canvas for the arts world.

“At one level, the images I make are simply copies of famous artworks. But on the other hand, the inscriptions that I insert are equally important and tell a story about the pictures, its origin or influence,” he said.

For instance, Andy Warhol’s screen prints of Marylin Monroe have been tagged as Made in Japan, as an attempt to comment on ‘American bombing of Japan during World War II.’

Explaining the idea behind tagging each sketch, Mehmood said that the images traced the history of foreign rule in a specific region.

Commenting on Mehmood’s work, Asad Hayee, the curator at Rohtas 2, said that the artist had shown an interesting kind of humour and intellect in his works by using a very basic mashq of miniature training graphite on wasli paper and commenting on world famous art images.

Mehmood is a graduate in miniature painting. He has been exhibiting his work as a professional for 10 years and is known for experimenting with various realms of miniature work.

The collection is an effort to highlight colonial influence in the neo-colonial period. Each art work can be bought at a price between Rs150,000 to Rs300,000. The display will continue till December 29.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2011.