Group Show By Various Artists Goes On Display

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Nov, 2022 ) :"Life Is Not Still" - a group show of still life paintings was put on display here on Monday at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) featuring as many as 47 works by various artists The show was curated by Dr. Rahat Naveed Masud and Amna I Pataudi while the participating artists include Aasim Akhter, Ali Hammad, Amina Cheema, Amna Ismail Pataudi, Aqeel Javaid Teetu, Buland Iqbal, Dure Waseem, Ghulam Mustafa, Hadiqa Asad, Hira Siddiqui, Ibrahim Ramay, Jimmy Engineer, Kahkashan Jafri, Kaleem Khan, Mariam Arslan, Masood Kohari, Mian Ijaz ul Hassan, Minaa Haroon, Mohammad Atif Khan, Mughees Riaz, Muhammad Asif Naela Amir, Najia Azmat, Rabia Asim, Rahat Naveed Masud, Rahat Qavi, Rifat Dar, Sakina Akbar, Sara Riaz, Shahnaz Akhter, Sumera Jawad, Sundas Azfer, Tassaduq Amin and Zafar Malik.

The show was inaugurated by first lady Mrs. Samina Arif Alvi, who lauded the efforts of curators saying that in today's art world, we appreciate contemporary art more than other art forms. People express their emotions through painting, calligraphy, sculpturing, drawing, Dance, Music, and Literature as fine art is the most beautiful creative expression, she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Amna Pataudi said that still-life drawing and painting is the seed which sprouted all other genres but unfortunately, it lost a lot of ground comparing to modern art forms like portrait, landscape, computer graphics and digital art.

"We owe a debt of gratitude to artists who are exhibiting their works in this exhibition, and continue promoting still-life as art." The idea of curating a show on 'Still-Life' is to revisit this very intimate and distinctive genre of painting, she said.

Local painters were introduced to different popular genres of European painting, such as portrait and figure painting, landscape painting and still life's which they eagerly adopted.

In Western painting, at one point in time still-life painting became immensely popular among artists and buyers. The merchant-class who could afford them loved to decorate their homes with these paintings.

Often an arrangement of inanimate objects, such as flowers, bottles, fruits, books, candles etc. became the usual items for painting.

However, the artist carefully chose these ordinary objects to express deeper symbolic meanings -- fruits and flowers carried many religious and mythical symbols; the Apple in a painting signified temptation etc., a skull or a candle represented the passing of time or the transience of life and so on.

In the Pakistani context, post partition, Pakistani art displayed a spirited diversity, where the need of the hour was to connect with the Indigenous and fashion an identity for the newly created ideological state. Still life painting was a popular subject as part of their repertoire.

Gradually, with the changing art scenario, this genre was simply relegated as a learning tool for students in art schools.

This exhibition is one such show that incorporates all the diversity now visible in the Pakistani art scene, said Dr. Rahat Naveed Masud while talking to APP.

ForArtsSake is a platform where we endeavor to celebrate the diversity of Pakistani art, to provide an opportunity to talented artists who may have been ignored by powerful lobbies in the art world. For Arts Sake also aspires to initiate intellectual debate on relevant issues related to art in Pakistan, he said.

The show continued till November 30.