Written by: Khadijah Rehman
Posted on: March 27, 2019 | 
A quadriptych of leaders of the Pakistan movement
Much has been said about Muhammad Ali Jinnah, in books and films, and yet he remains as elusive as an old, forgotten dream. The nation knows of Jinnah the unwavering founder behind the podium, the Jinnah of articulate, passionate dialogue, and Jinnah the quick-witted lawyer in court. Pieced together through old photographs, a collective Jinnah has been dreamt up by the nation, but perhaps no one has seen him the way contemporary painter Saeed Akhtar has explored his personality. At the Zahoor-Ul-Akhlaq Gallery at the National College of Arts (NCA), the show ‘Preserving Legacy’ by Saeed Akhtar proved to be an ode, above all else, to the person Muhammad Ali Jinnah was.
Consisting entirely of paintings, drawings and sculptures of Jinnah, the show was spread out within two gallery rooms, with larger than life-sized paintings of the historic figure looming over the viewer, each work a testament to the devotion of the artist and the grace of the subject. Encapsulating familiar images of Jinnah as a man of hard work, poised behind his desk in a suit or seated in front of a Pakistani flag, a precious attention to detail was evident in the works, from slender hands comfortably draped over the arm of a chair, to a monocle dangling from one eye. These paintings were without the academicism one associates with commissioned works, and the artist had instead, throughout his career, found ways to lovingly re-imagine Jinnah, not just as a politician but as a man of wisdom and enigma. One such work was a massive portrait created entirely of squares in different hues. While Jinnah's distinctive features were immediately discernible, the portrait fluctuated between abstraction and contemporary stylization, in a way one seldom witnesses when looking at depictions of a political figure. In the midst of tender, immensely realistic figurative paintings of Jinnah around the room, this portrait was a nod towards Jinnah as a mystery, a man shrouded by the constant responsibility of being a public figure. It seems as if the artist had a burning desire to not only understand and know the founder of Pakistan, but to cherish him through the sensitivity of his skill - wash upon wash of oil paint giving form to works of reverence and awe. From the gleam in his eye to the lustre of his polished shoes, each detail was recreated as if to breathe new life into the man.
Saeed Akhtar's ardent quest to understand and recreate the essence of Muhammad Ali Jinnah was not limited to enormous, majestic oil paintings. Impassioned, fervent drawings of the Quaid's face adorned a wall, crisp lines and strokes capturing his tight lipped intensity, a hat perched jauntily atop his head. A sculptural bust rested nearby, the fruit of the artist's many layered, laborious journey into comprehending his subject's face - its form, anatomy and expression. The symbolic Jinnah cap was missing here, its absence reflecting a more intimate, personal exploration of the man instead of the politician, his expression sombre as if in repose. The sculpture was intuitive, the artist's hand vigorous in its creation, as if experiencing a personal connection to its subject.
In preserving the sum of a man long gone, Saeed Akhtar has, through his work, ensured that his spirit lives on, as real and as luminous as his vision of a new homeland.
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