Jamil Naqsh is one of Pakistan's pre-eminent modern artists, perhaps the greatest living artist of our country. For the last five decades he has created a compelling oeuvre of drawings and paintings in water colours and oils.
Working with various artistic themes - women, pigeon, horse and prajna paramita being the favourite subjects, he explores art forms, which led him to an innovative style and recognition. During his long career Naqsh had experimented as well as got influenced by great artists and sculptors, the Italian sculptor Marino Marini influenced him to paint his magnificent 'Woman and Horse' series in 90s setting new parameters in a striking juxtaposition of form.
Recently in 2009 Jamil Naqsh pays homage to Pablo Picasso, the great master of the twentieth century, the works exhibited took over a number of years to be created. Except few all of his paintings were in pencil, here I used word paintings for his drawings as it is an excepted fact that Jamil Naqsh pencil drawings are complete paintings. Naqsh elaborates his drawing works as, 'There is line, form and shades of light minus colours', thus a complete painting.
Painting is an obsession for Jamil Naqsh, he discovers constant challenge and excitement in it, which give him a great joy. He has worked continuously for decades, devoted his life to art, maintaining his uniqueness with his diversity of handling the media and the subject of his art works.
An extensive series of painting at Momart Gallery, titled 'Pigeons and a Slice of Light' based on Jamil Naqsh's inspiration of pigeons and Noor Jehan's poem on her mausoleum in Lahore, forty canvases depicting pigeons roaming around, living their life in and out of the broken walls of the mausoleum, presenting a unique combination of life and death.
The pigeons experiencing rays of light in the dark corners of the tomb symbolising a ray of hope for the forgotten dead who will be remembered some day and the mausoleum, which serves as reminder of her fame.
This collection in oils is entirely different in tone and mood from the previous pigeon series it reveals silence and death, thus a farewell to one of his favourite themes 'pigeons'. He discovered and portrays the great variations in pigeons ingrained in his subconscious through this recent series of paintings.
He is an artist of new vision expressing himself through modern styles and techniques. His paintings have a magnetic impulse along with the rhythm that is an essence of his work and distinguish him from others. The series is actually an expressionistic link between past and present interpreting bitter, sweet memories. Joys and sorrows flowing together became a single part in a refined way.
Naqsh explores the light, space and dimension in the whole series. The sweeping brush strokes highlights the vibrant sensuous moments in his images. The myriad tonal components in his works show the freedom of expression through line, surface and space.
The pigeons as ever are portrayed in a free modern style vibrant with energy and tonal variations, unique and exciting. He uses varied colours but with discipline, which is one of his specialities. In the recent series yellow, ochre, blues, green and red are used with white subtly predominating, reflecting a slice of light.
He produces apparently spontaneous works of art. It is really difficult to portray a single subject continually exploring in minute detail and in an infinite variety of tones but it is only Jamil Naqsh who is experiencing such phenomena since decades.
Jamil Naqsh was a eight-year old boy when he left his father and home in Kairana, on the banks of the river Jumna to live in Pakistan. Lahore is the first city he visited after arriving here. While visiting he came across the tomb of Empress Noor Jehan and was moved by her poem expressing an obituary in Persian. He had the knowledge of Persian script while studying history with his father.
Here Jamil's spiritual connection with pigeons begins. Now that pigeon is free from the bond of love that made the pigeon captive for last many decades. As art enthusiasts and the people who perceive art said and I also admit that Jamil Naqsh has a mastery in colour sense but in my opinion he is also a master of light, he has so much command on light work that he do not need any geometry of light and shade. He can use light on his canvas at any angle at any place at any direction and creates an impression thus unmatched and unique. This light is life of his painting if it is gone his painting becomes dull.
Now the love affair of pigeon and women has come to an end. The pigeon which was representing absent lover, carrying messages and was symbol of loneliness has back to its roots, as the integral part of mazar where it belongs. The hole in the wall of mazar Surrounded by the brilliant blue of the tiled lattice work - is the home of pigeons, which they always love until death.
Naqsh believes that his artistic legacy lies in the variation of form, colour and texture of his subjects and the volume of his work. He draws inexhaustible inspiration from his subjects and paints for his own pleasure. During the last five decades he had achieved national and international recognition in the form of various honours and awards.
In 1989 he received Pride of Performance Award and recently in 2009 he was awarded the highest civil award, Sitara-e-Imtiaz and Najmi Sura was awarded the Tamga-e-Imtiaz.
For a number of years paintings and drawings by Jamil Naqsh have graced international auction houses such as Bonhams, Sotheby's and Christie's.
In spite of numerous National Awards Jamil Naqsh is not yet fully satisfied with himself nor others have totally understood his works. The journey that started from Kairana travelling through Lahore, Karachi and now London has always brought new direction in the progression of Jamil Naqsh. Jamil Naqsh Passion continues with art creating forms and emotions. His paintings and exhibitions show his intangible relationship with his subjects. Thus his journey is continuing, there is no pause, his spell is not broken yet! [email protected]
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