Mashkoor Raza needs no introduction he is one of the most celebrated artists of Pakistan. He has established himself as an identity on canvas for portraying the brute force of horses and silent nude figures during the last four decades. His boldly rendered horses and glamorous nudes in abstract have become his signature style.
Mashkoor has been holding solo exhibitions almost every year since he has graduated from Karachi School of Art (KSA) in Fine Art in 1972 standing first, in the First Division and winning a gold medal. He has also participated in many national and international displays around the globe and his paintings have been selected for the art collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Last week he has held his 50th solo exhibition at Tanzara Gallery, Islamabad, which is an honour for the artist as he is the only artist of the world who has reached to a golden jubilee of solo shows. He is the most prolific artist of our country after Sadequain. A book "Mashkoor Raza's Journey" written by Nadeem Zuberi was launched a few years ago, which revealed some of the many different experiences of Mashkoor's life and different phases of progress of his work, revealing a story of the ability to motivate one's creativity and the journey of self-discovery.
A recipient of Pride of Performance, Mashkoor is acclaimed for his non-representational and abstract/ cubism styles, which have become his inimitable signature. With a blend of abstraction and cubist component, Mashkoor creates aesthetic transparent impressions through which his images adopt varying shapes. The exhibition offered a wide perspective of Mashkoor's work. From images of women to action-packed horses to calligraphic masterpieces and abstract artworks, the exhibition encapsulated them all Mashkoor's major artworks were of commendable quality, bold colours combination and fine strokes captured the diverse presentation of women and horse in attractive semi-abstract paintings while aesthetically beautiful calligraphy was also part of his works.
The horse - a majestic animal bears immense fascination for Mashkoor. Horses serve both as a subject and symbol in his paintings. He portrays horses as a symbol of beauty, power and speed. Mostly Dutch and French artists over the centuries incorporated horses in their paintings. But no one has created such ingenious and intricate abstract compositions with a lively and exciting line work and no one has used such glowing colours in variegated harmonies like Mashkoor in Pakistan.
Even in the realm of anatomy and figure painting, which is believed to be one of the most difficult undertakings; Mashkoor leaves behind an indelible imprint. Almost all of his figures are in cubist form, with the authoritative drawing making each a piece of art to behold. Mashkoor uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition, which contains a degree of independence from visual references in the real world - woman and horse. Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate representation can be only slight, or it can be partial, or it can be complete Mashkoor chooses the partial one.
This, of course, is not to contend that abstract art cannot be as moving and powerful as anything that realistic art has to offer. But in the case of abstract work, the task of the artist became much more difficult to evoke the kind of response from the viewer that good representational art is able to do. But Mashkoor has done it over the past four decades.
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