rt history, or the art world, takes unpredictable routes – often following a linear passage but sometimes moving in circules. During his lifetime, Ismail Gulgee enjoyed immense success. He was well known in this country, even to those who had never visited an art gallery, leafed through an art book or seen his work. The creator seemed supreme and grand in comparison to his creations. Perhaps this was one reason that, when he passed away in 2007, his art slowly – though slightly – began fading from the discourse of local art.

This phenomenon is not peculiar to Gulgee; it has been observed in the case of several artists. Anwar Jalal Shemza, Zahoor-ul Akhlaq and Salahuddin Mian also started receding from the centre stage of the art narrative soon after their demise. It is their recent inclusion in international exhibitions, new publications and renewed interest from the art market that has revived these masters of Pakistani art.

The Gulgee Museum, inaugurated on February 19 in Karachi, is a step towards reaffirming Gulgee’s genius and dispelling the misconceptions of repetitiveness, excessiveness and exhaustion mistakenly associated with the late painter’s work. Strategically selected artworks, thoughtfully arranged in different rooms of the two-storeyed museum by Amin Gulgee, offer a deep insight into the late artist’s mind – more than just his hand or brush.

Ismail Gulgee was primarily known for his abstract canvases, later incorporating Islamic calligraphy into his pictorial vocabulary – initially in an allusive manner, later more overtly, even dominantly. This evolution can be examined in the broader context of the Islamic Republic’s shift from a modern state (from its inception until the early 1970s) to the process of Islamisation. This project, initiated by Zia-ul Haq, has many supporters today and not just mullahs and militants.

The museum dedicated to Gulgee offers a deep understanding of the core of the artist’s aesthetics. For the painter, there was likely no contradiction between the language of abstraction and the Arabic calligraphy. Both transcend the limits of representational forms, identifiable objects and matchable originals. Through tangible means – forms, shapes, materials – both introduce a phenomenon that exists beyond the physical realm. They offer a sense of transcendence, leading to a world that lies beyond our physical existence while simultaneously reaching deep within ourselves.

When reading a text, one is removed from the presence of black shapes and lines on a page and instead engages with the ideas these words evoke, constructing an ideal world that exists only in the mind of the reader. A similar experience unfolds when viewing a work of abstract art – it, too, eludes the constraints of observable reality. Abstract art transforms not only its material essence but also our perception, transporting our thoughts to a higher, more profound and enlightened sphere. Whether described as mystical, spiritual or subliminal, this journey is triggered through optical engagement, guiding our eyes – one of our strongest tools for interpreting reality – beyond their inherent capacity.

That divine experience – of Muslim calligraphers who never inscribed the word of God without performing ablution – and what is defined as the ‘sublime’ by practitioners of American abstract art, taught Gulgee to respect and treat both as two components of a single entity. The imaginative and well-thought-out display at the Gulgee Museum facilitates this understanding. As early as the 1970s – illustrated by Unity, the painting created for the OIC Summit in Lahore in 1974 – Gulgee expanded the spiritual essence of the sacred script. The swirling Arabic letters, representing a verse from the Holy Quran, evoke a sense of mystical energy, even for those who cannot read Arabic. This metaphysical force transcends earthly bounds, guiding the viewer into a vast and infinite universe.

Ismail Gulgee was primarily known for his abstract canvases, later incorporating Islamic calligraphy into his pictorial vocabulary.

Ismail Gulgee was not the sole pioneer of this synthesis, a recurring theme among several artists of his generation who explored the abstract nature of the written word. Anwar Jalal Shemza, Ahmed Pervaiz, Rasheed Araeen and Rashid Arshed integrated the abstraction of Western art with the forms and functions of Arabic script, using both its visual shape and its capacity to construct an imaginative realm in the viewer’s mind. While Araeen, Gulgee and Arshed explored its sacred dimension, Shemza and Pervaiz focused on the secular aspects of language.

The recently inaugurated Gulgee Museum illustrates how the painter fulfilled this vision, which could be described as decolonising Western aesthetics – comparable to the decolonisation of European languages. Just as English has been reclaimed by writers from South Asia, Africa and other former colonies; French by writers from the Middle East, Africa and several Caribbean islands; Spanish by authors from Latin America; and Portuguese in the literature of Brazil, Mozambique and other Portuguese-speaking nations outside Europe – Gulgee’s work sought to redefine artistic expression. This phenomenon, described by the Kenyan writer Ng g wa Thiong’o as decolonising the mind, resonates in his practice.

The chronological arrangement of Gulgee’s paintings in the museum reveals the evolution of his artistic vision and approach. As observed, there was no rigid distinction between Arabic script and abstract brushstrokes – the two became one. The modern, the external and the unfamiliar yielded to the inner, the intimate and the eternal.

The display also showcases different facets of Ismail Gulgee: his drawings, pietra dura pieces; realistic paintings of significant and loved ones; sculptures; videos of him discussing art and life; and photographs from various periods of his journey. His easel, worktable, brushes, palette knives and a sequence of broad brushes arranged on a stand are also included. All of this, superbly curated by Amin Gulgee, presents a comprehensive portrait of the grand artist – not only for Pakistan’s art world but also for those who may have no direct connection to art or Pakistan yet have a passion for colour and creativity.

Observing the artist’s entire oeuvre, one realises that Gulgee’s painting was, at its core, a performance. He revelled in the movement of his hand with paint – as though engaging in a dance with his canvas.

Due to this characteristic, one does not perceive a contradiction between Gulgee’s drawings of familiar faces, important personalities, workers, birds and animals and his expressionistic surfaces. When examined closely, the former – seemingly naturalistic renderings of features and contours – are composed of swiftly shifting marks left in the wake of a pencil, brush or chalk. In this sense, his abstract paintings, calligraphic canvases and figurative drawings are all deeply related. Despite their varying subject matter, they are unified by the act of mark-making.

Like numbers, a human life also follows a cyclical pattern. The number 1 becomes a unit at 10; ten concludes as 100, and so forth. Human life – though it may end physically at any age – is generally perceived as rarely exceeding 100 years. In later years, this sense of cyclicality enters a person’s psyche, shaping their patterns of living and ways of thinking. The elderly often spend hours recounting tales of their childhood. Once too frail, they begin to behave like children. Aware that time is limited, they become minimal, sorted and sparse in their behaviour, conversations, choices, food and clothing.

The motif of the circle emerged in Gulgee’s paintings from the late 1990s and into the 2000s. These canvases, relatively small yet dominated by a large, overpowering dot, seem to expand infinitely – its proximity to the canvas edges and undefined boundaries creating an illusion of boundlessness. The sensitively applied layers of paint render these forms akin to the sun, appearing even more luminous than the one we face outside our windows or in open spaces.

The entire exhibition of Ismail Gulgee’s work forms a vast circle, contained in sdifferent sections of the museum, encapsulating the multidimensional and multidisciplinary genius that he was.

The writer is a visual artist, an art critic, a curator and a professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore