Abid Khan’s painting, Peace, Peace Seems All, is part of his current series of works being exhibited at the Ocean Art Gallery till June 29. PHOTO COURTESY OCEAN ART GALLERY
KARACHI: Abid Khan’s fascination with nature and the beauty it withholds is apparent in his latest series of works. The English Literature academic claims he uses paintings as an effective medium to communicate his vision and ideas to the audience. His work, one finds, is mostly inspired by landscapes one comes across in English prose and poetry.
Khan’s latest exhibition, titled ‘Beauty is truth, truth is beauty’, being held at the Ocean Art Gallery till June 29, received a positive response from art lovers, artists and the general audience on its opening night on June 23.
One of Khan’s works, Purity of Heart, shows a blossoming garden with different light-coloured flowers giving it an overall pleasant look. As the title suggests, the artist tried to encompass the purity of the human heart, which according to him is much like the beauty of the natural world, in his painting. In another image, Spirit of Love and Truth, the artist has captured the scene of a park with yellow flowers prominently displayed in the backdrop.
The scene shows a cheerful day in the park with families picnicking in the pleasant atmosphere.
In a thought-provoking image of childhood years, Khan reminisces about his yester-years in the painting, ‘Golden Days of My School Life’. The canvas depicts a scene from a school playground where uniformed students are seen playing different games.
The backdrop of the painting shows a tall building which is presumably the school building. Once again, Khan uses lighter shades to give the image a robust and pleasant look.
Speaking about his own work, Abid Khan related that, “Being associated with the classical and modern field of English literature, I felt the necessity to express myself in some way or the other in pictorial art. Therefore, I found release by manifesting my vision and communicating my power of imagination by painting.”
Earlier, Ocean Art Gallery director, Khalil Ahmed, during the inauguration speech, said that, “Khan is one of the rare breed of oil painters who can handle classical landscapes. His landscapes seem to be inspired by impressionist painters of Europe. His work is prestigious locations such as Serena Hotel Islamabad, Expo Centre Lahore and Chief Minister House Lahore. His recent work is proof of the maturity of a seasoned artist.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 24th, 2013.
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Beautiful abid khan is one of the trend setters of oil on canvas paintings in pakistan hailing from lahore he truly depicts what he sees in reality which is very rare nowadays amongst present south asian artists :-)
Its soo sad that there is no database of Pakistani artists, let alone online portfolio pictures. I have been recently trying to look at the Pakistani artists who work in islamic calligraphy (and are alive) because I would like to buy some works for my home and only after an exhaustive search, I was only able to come up with a few names and still couldnt get a look at most artists' portfolio nor any contact information for them.
I would like to request the tribune to write articles about young and old Pakistani artists working in all genres and, when doing so, comprise their portfolio and provide information of how to contact the artist to buy their work.
Thanks!
Please give us a link to high-def images of his artwork and any way we can support him. That picture looks stunning, so dreamy.