Art exhibition: Capturing the mystery of past loves

Wahab Jaffer presents a series of paintings dominated by women, vases and flowers.

ISLAMABAD:

Touted as a modern master of art in the country, Wahab Jaffer showcased his latest collection at Tanzara Art Gallery on Thursday.

His work involves feminine faces, abstract vases and flowers, mainly painted in acrylic. All of the 41 pieces on display, reflect his signature mark - colourful surfaces with portraits of young women, next to miniature ink drawings.

This recurring theme of faces, lines and shades of hair, is altered in some of the works.

“These are the faces of women from my past, they still manage to haunt me each night,” Jaffer said. The paintings are bright, inventive and symbolic. He successfully captures the moods and attitudes of the women on canvas. His lines are smooth, colour coordination and composition, balanced.

The artist has used the yellow colour abundantly. “Yellow is my favourite colour. I love using it without making it too jarring or loud,” he said.

He makes smart use of the colour which many others artists seem to struggle with. “The paintings exude a fresh wave of energy,” the gallery’s curtor, Noshi Qadir pointed out.

“I have Bhutto to thank for becoming an artist,” he said, narrating his breakthrough into the field. After working as an automotive engineer in England, Jaffer returned to Pakistan to settle his family’s automobile business.

Meanwhile, his family was also setting up a fertilizer factory and the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto nationalised industry in 1972.

Jaffer was to run the factory which was under construction. He would still go to office but there was no work to do.

Across the road was the artist Ali Imam’s Indus gallery from where the young industrialist had been buying paintings. Jaffer took Imam’s art classes for six months and then studied at Indus, where he met other like-minded artists such as Sadequain, Bashir Mirza, Gulgee and Ahmed Parvez. “We used to get together every Sunday between 10am to 2pm,” he said. The exhibition continues till March 26.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2013.