Art Facts: Nostalgic cityscapes

Paintings of old walled city of Lahore by Munawar Mohiuddin brought memories for many in an exhibition at Artscene gallery, Karachi.
The scenes in his paintings revealed sunny and bright days of the city depicting pigeons flying in the sky along with hundreds of colourful kites a scene of once much celebrated basant festival in Lahore. Munawar seemed to be a person who sees the bright side of things, thus delivering a message of love and hope symbolically in the form of kites and pigeons.
The stately nostalgic works offered glimpses of the city dwellings through which the artist explored the realities. Showing glowing past the hustle and bustle of markets and the people busy in daily life activities in narrow streets were reflections of peaceful past.
He preserved the beautiful past in his paintings. The cityscapes have a lot of intricate details that showed deep involvement of the artists with the city. His work was in a broad range of colours and tones. Various colour hues from ochre to creamy pale yellows, white and deep blues, reds and grey, blacks and greens were used in each painting to enhance and give it more significance and description.
The images he created were both magical and cold. The paintings of old city buildings portrayed the life of people going on as years passing by with a simple lifestyle and tranquil environment.
He has displayed a definite theme, which reflected his command on his work. His themes were based on the facts of life, and his paintings have a strong socio-political context.
The colours expressed tranquillity and a perspicuous flow. Thus brings forth images with creative dimensions. His works portrayed densely knitted, well built, dwellings of Lahore.
His paintings mainly contained scattered traditional cityscapes, buildings and architecture reflecting tones of evening and noon with sunlight and shadows making some times a dramatic situation.
The images he has chosen, such as luscious patterns, landscape, even figures like children, men, women, old and young, all assembled into a coherent manner with a touch of contemporary sensibility.
His work gives the sight of the place as well as an introduction to our heritage. The street scenes which were dominating his canvases have clusters of houses brimming with activities such as the roof tops, without plaster walls, a vender's cart full of small items and kites flying far off, pigeons flying high. These all added the beauty to the painting's ambiance.
He was deeply attracted to the cityscapes, therefore his paintings represent, people, buildings and market places knitted in a harmonious manner, showing both nostalgia and confidence.
He captured realist colours and textures expressing the themes behind his subject matter effectively. His artworks presented the richness of the place as well as an introduction to our heritage. His work showed passion and affection.
He portrayed each building with every possible feature that brought his paintings almost real giving a feeling of actually being there. The rusted balconies, the street scenes and activities on the roads and lanes all these renditions make his work appealing and attractive.
He has achieved the sensibility of exposing the subject effectively. The detailed structures of buildings signify the same.
The mosque, the old tower, rusted balconies, the dusty streets, and the roof tops having wind catchers in his paintings reminded the bygone days in an effective style. He added shady trees and foliage for greenery and colourful clothes hanging in balconies in his work, which has given charm to his paintings.
An imagination blended with realistic situations, depicts an overwhelming energy in his paintings. His work became more appealing and attractive with the renditions of the clusters of houses having colourful laundry in the balcony, pigeons and bright-hued kites flying in the sky, the clouds floating slowly in the sky and the people busy in their daily routine chores. Thus he revealed all elements of every day life experienced by common people.
His paintings mainly contain scattered traditional buildings and old architecture reflecting our past glories side by side. The paintings show various times of the day - noon and evening bathing in sunlight. [email protected]