The portraiture is one of the oldest and most popular genres in the visual arts since the human beings have started to explore their creative abilities. When we go through history we find the most basic recording of all civilisations and cultures have human images in the form of portraiture. The methods of recording may differ but the basic form of portraiture remains intact may it be drawing or sculpture.
The pharaohs, the Romans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Mughals and the Chinese all choose portraiture to preserve their history and culture. And we see portraiture as a common way of communication and documentation of the past for the future.
To manifest the central importance of portraiture in visual arts an exhibition titled "Portraiture" at Art Chowk the Gallery, Karachi bring together the artists with diverse practices, creating portraits in variable formats from sculptures to photography.
There is a portraiture galore at the exhibition as the collection at the exhibition comprise all forms of portraiture of twenty seven artists in various genre of portraiture from the cast busts, drawings, self-portraits, paintings to digital interpretations including the works of renowned artists like Mirza Sajjad Hussain (late), Saeed Akhtar and Adil Salahuddin.
The creation of any portrait - a painting, drawing, photograph or sculpture is an artistic representation of a person by an artist. The art of the portrait flourished in ancient Greek while the Roman specialise in sculpture, which portrays an individual's realistic portrait even unflattering ones.
The human face is the most fascinating feature for artists since early days. In a portrait of a person the face and its expression is predominant as the intention is to portray the personality, the likeness and even the mood of the person. From old days till the recent times all artists used the face to portray human emotions. The expressions of a face tell the whole story behind that face, a life of a person open in front of the viewer.
A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. Such portrait describes not only a person but also the place he/she belongs and the period in which he/she was living and thus in a way the portrait became a description of a time period at certain place with unique characters of a person and its surroundings.
Sculptures of Abdul Jabbar Gull and Shehzad Ali represent a genre of portraiture which is less practised nowadays but was the major source of expression and documentation for centuries in the past. Both works are certainly good presentation of the form and expression.
In portraiture photography a portrait is generally not just a snapshot but a composed image of a person in a still position. The advent of photography open gates for artists to explore portraiture in a new form - Arif Mahmood, Jamal Ashiqain, Qamar Bana and Salman Hassan offer the viewers to peek into this modern genre of portraiture and understand the portraiture in a new form.
It is really a good effort and the art lovers enjoyed this genre of portraiture at a single place with so many well-known artists. The exhibition also include the works of - Ali Azmat, Babar Moghal, Farhan Ihsan, Farrukh Shahab, Hamida Sajjad, Mansur Salim, Michelle Farooqi, Moeen Faruqi, Mohammad Ali Bhatti, Mugheez Riaz, Omer Farid, Rahat Naveed Masud, Sabiha Nasr-ud-deen, Sara Khan, Scharjeel Sarfaraz, S.M.Raza, Sujjal Kayani and Tariq Javed. [email protected]
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