Reviewing the ordinary: Paintings as fluid as the tremor of life

Masood A Khan’s exhibit flaunts everyday scenes with intricate detailing, transforming them to magical realms.

ISLAMABAD:

Art imitates life at its most spontaneous in the paintings of an award-winning artist, Masood A Khan. An exhibition of his work which opened at the Nomad Art Gallery on Thursday portrays the mundane in a whimsical manner, rendering scenes from urban and rural life as opposed to cityscapes, imparting a surreal feel to them.

Although the pieces seem inspired from the localised, community setting of the artist’s native city of Karachi, they could just as well depict humanity elsewhere in the world.

A total of 20 paintings, with colours ranging from vibrant hues to monochromes take on a virtual spree inside the artist’s imagination.

Layered in a delicate amalgam of colour and lines, the paintings contain translucent and opaque surfaces, and come in varying sizes and frames which lend them a contemporary look.

Bringing out multidimensional perspectives and angles of the paintings, Khan makes them look like photographs.

The treatment of watercolours, pen-and-ink and acrylic wash makes for a visually-appealing experience without going overboard.

The balance of soft colour such as sky blue and lilac next to bright neon in mostly oranges and greens, reveal the artist’s control and command over the palette and the interplay of shadows and light in his work.

The simplicity in the details stuns — from rural women working around charpoys to little children playing musical instruments in the warmth of their living room, and the company of a grandparent with intermediate elements of cats, plants or fruit on a kitchen table.

The detailing in architecture shines through in most of the pieces, making one feel as if they are actually peering through a window.

The artist has previously displayed his work at various galleries in the country and abroad. Each time, he has experimented with form and colour, but the surfaces remain the same.

Quite emotively, the artist expresses his surroundings through the tools of realism and modernism.

“In the remote recesses of my subconscious lies an effort to create a spiritual climate that touches the heart. I don’t need to distort the naturalistic forms as done in cubism or other -isms of art. I have externalised my outrage at the hypocrisy-religious, social, economic-that cloaks and disguises our true intentions,” read the artist’s statement.

“In my works, depicting a world emphasising the simplicity and joy of spiritual content versus the present contemporary situation with all its perils, I have peeled off layer by later, the fables that determine our lives. I have created new possibilities in realism that have never been done before,” the statement added.

Commenting on the artist’s skill, gallery curator Nageen Hayat said, “Masood’s work is very distinct. He has been exhibiting at Nomad for many years. I’ve noticed maturity in his line, control and experimentation which makes the paintings outstanding.”

She added that she had received an overwhelming response from her friends from all over the globe when she uploaded some images of the paintings on her Facebook page.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by National Democratic Institute Senior Resident Country Director Sandra Houston and will continue until January 16.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 2^nd, 2014.