Celebrating a poet: Abdul Ghani Khan lives on in portraits

These pieces of art will be exhibited in shows in K-P and Afghanistan.

PESHAWAR:

As the province gears up to celebrate Abdul Ghani Khan’s centenary this year, several artists have decided to pay tribute by painting portraits of the poet.

Painters from the province, including Brekhna Shehzad, Mavra Khan and Mohammad Arshad, are trying to incorporate Khan’s philosophy and politics into their work to express their affection for the man who was not just a poet but a painter, sculptor and vital part of Pashto literature.



These pieces of art will be exhibited in shows organised not only in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but across the border in Afghanistan as well.

Ghani Khan was born in 1914 in what is now Charsadda district. His father Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan was a prominent leader of the Khudai Khidmatgar Tehreek. Abdul Ghani was the youngest parliamentarian in the Indo-Pak subcontinent and was incarcerated on several occasions before and after Partition. He was trained at Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan Academy in painting and sculpture. He passed away in 1996.

Ghani Khan’s poetry was mostly humourous and satirical. He is considered to be one of the grand masters of Pashto literature in the same league as Amir Hamza Khan Shinwari and Qalandar Momand.

Hamdullah Arbab, a painter who works mostly with oil and water colours, while talking about his portrait of Ghani Khan, said it was an interesting way to highlight the poet’s work and philosophy. He added that his real aim was to convey Ghani Khan’s philosophy to the masses through his art.

So far, the artist has completed 27 portraits and abstracts of Ghani Khan which reflect different dimensions of his poetry. He claimed that he planned to work on 50 others. These pieces will be sent to Swat, Peshawar, Kabul, Jalalabad, Quetta and abroad for exhibitions to celebrate Ghani Khan’s centenary.

“A painting is usually based on a few verses or a poem or some part of Ghani Khan’s personality,” said Arbab. “My sole aim is to show the common man who Ghani Khan was.” He added that in one of the paintings there was a minaret rising from Ghani Khan’s turban and he had done this to show that the late poet was not against religion.

The artist has also worked on other series of portraits which include Dr Muhammad Azam Azam and Bacha Khan. His works have been exhibited not only at home but also Europe and America.

Other artists who are painting portraits of Ghani Khan are Mohammad Arshad, Riffatullah Khattak, Salman Khan, Arshad Atal and Murad Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2014.