Painting the striking hues of femininity in a colourless Thar

Moazzam Ali is a contemporary artist known for his contributions in the art locally and internationally. His mastery of the watercolour medium and his dexterity in handling the technique draws attention of art lovers worldwide. His current solo exhibition at Artciti Gallery, Karachi was a treat for watercolour fans.

He has chosen the transparent watercolour technique for his expressions, and uses other elements such as textures, lines, shapes and light to maintain the transparency of the medium. His compositions show vividness, rhythm, veracity and design of its own. In his nearly four-decade career, Moazzam Ali developed his expertise in this field by travelling around the world to study and research.

He is a painter who created his own unique, distinctive painting style influenced by the ‘Thar Desert’. He successfully presents relationship between culture and life experiences. The series of figures show sequences echoing stories. His paintings reflect his artistic expressions in a variety of emotions, representations and themes that are explored during the lifetime of a woman.

His rendering of figures is different as he mainly portrayed the feminine form using shades of bright colours against dull background to glamorize the simplicity of human anatomy against a colourless life in Thar.

His paintings reflect traditional features and attractive dresses of Thari women, which is thousands of year’s old unique heritage of Indus Civilization. A Thari woman with a pitcher is one of his signature works. His paintings reveal poetical renditions of women images focusing on local women’s daily life in vibrant hues.

While going through his paintings over the period of time I observed that Moazzam Ali speaks through the eyes of women he paints. The flat face women without any expressions gaze at the viewer as if trying to say something. These women speaks another language – a language of silence which is being heard loudly by the viewers around the globe wherever the paintings were exhibited. The almond eyes are always thinking. These thoughts are of past, present and future thus she has a keen eye on every aspect of life but do not express her thoughts openly. Moazzam brings out what is in the heart of these women as they have confined themselves inside unseen boundaries and he helped them cross those boundaries; silently narrating their stories of the past and present through paintings hoping for better future ahead.

He excelled in the medium of watercolour painting and created a bond with the heritage in his own different way. He visited different parts of Sindh like Thatta, Makli and Chawkandi from where he also got his inspiration.

The drapery and jewels in his paintings are colourful have various bright colours like orange, yellow, chrome yellow, golden, bright red just like the drapery and jewels found in the desert region. By using all these vibrant colours he gives a realistic touch to his paintings. But he often leaves half the picture plain unpainted adding the feeling of freedom and spontaneity.

Thousands of years have passed by and still their history is alive making it one of the strongest civilizations in the world making people around the world keen and inspired many like Moazzam Ali.

‘Women of Thar’ is a constant theme, which persists throughout his painting career. He has produced a number of paintings on this theme but he also ventured on other women subjects and sometimes do landscapes paintings to take a break.