“Back in 1980s, miniature was dying and I did not realise it until a team of Chinese artists visiting Lahore asked to see traditional art forms,” says Zaidi.
LAHORE:
Eight paintings by Rukhe Neelofer Zaidi depicting traditional Afghan and Irani carpets, women in ethnic shalwar kamees and rural landscapes, are on display at the 39K Art Gallery in Model Town.
Neelofer, who graduated from the College of Art and Design at the University of Punjab in 1985, said she liked to produce work that followed traditional forms.
“Back in 1980s, miniature was dying and I did not realise it until a team of Chinese artists visiting Lahore asked to see traditional art forms.” She said she then realised that most local artists were learning and working on Western style paintings.
“Most Asian art is water based. Oil comes from the West,” she said.
Neelofer said she had decided then to experiment with various media. She turned first to using the tempera, an ancient Asian medium.
“I later switched to gouache since tempera paint has egg yolk in it and the paintings made using it are hard to preserve,” she said.
She said she liked to incorporate traditional fabric prints and had used Afghan and Irani carpets in her recent work. Her three paintings of fruits, two 50x50 paintings of women in traditional clothes next to paintings of floral carpets and three small paintings are on display.
A landscape showing a myriad of trees with people from artist´s last exhibition, titled Talaash, is also on display.
39K curator Rakhshanda Atawar said, “We have only selected eight paintings for display so the visitors can absorb them well. Also five of the eight paintings are big and are taking most of the gallery space.”
The exhibition opened on Friday and will go on until April 19.
The pieces are priced between Rs100,000 and Rs500,000.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 15th, 2013.
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