Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: November 02, 2022 | 
| 中文
A Saeed Akhtar painting
For over half a century the artist Saeed Akhtar has consistently displayed series after series of paintings and drawings. His recent solo exhibition was hosted at the Saeed Akhtar Studio on 30th October 2022, celebrating the artist’s 84th birthday and 10 Years of Saeed Akhtar Studio. The opening reception was a joyous reunion between members of the art fraternity and the larger art community of Lahore. Attendees included pioneering artists and academics of the 70s such as Bashir Ahmed, Ijaz Anwar, Sajda Vendal and Talat Dabir. The camaraderie and close-knit friendships shared between these legendary artists created a heartwarming atmosphere in the gallery. A large number of drawings that were displayed were primarily portraits, echoing the signature style of Saeed Akhtar along with a few studies of horses in motion.
85th birthday celebrations of Saeed Akhtar
The powerful series of portraits were gazing back at the viewer from all four split levels of the gallery space. While walking from each portrait to the next, the differentiating line between realism and abstraction begins to blur as the facial features become pensive, while the headgears of these subjects feel abstract. Effortlessly playing with the weight of the line and molding the form into abstraction in the medium of graphite requires mastery of drafting, perspective and mark-making that the artist acquires after decades of experience. The facial features of the portrait carry the illusion of density and volume of fullness, closer to the depiction of skin with carefully sculptural formations of the nose, eyes and cheeks. But then the deliberately exaggerated headgear plays a transformative abstract movement that is free and fluid, as compared to the face. This unique framing of the face using the turban creates lyrical harmony in the portrait. These carefree oscillating lines are in motion adding ephemeral energy to the image. The body of work begins to resemble a caravanserai of a fictional tribe that inhabits the visual world of the artist. Drawing is the anchoring composition in Saeed Akhtar's paintings, as it is paramount for the artist to capture a likeness of his subject that has the depth of emotive realism.
Saeed Akhtar's painting
The Saeed Akhtar studio since its first inception, had been instrumental in shaping generations of visual artists through the art instruction of Saeed Akhtar. In recent years, their drawing programs include formal training in the foundations of drawing and human anatomy, offering students the chance to build essential visual observational skills to support their future artistic endeavors. The exhibition at Saeed Akhtar Studio brought together the Akhtar family members, teaching faculty of the National College of Arts and Punjab University, students of all ages and artist contemporaries to celebrate the artist. Celebrating the everlasting presence of Saeed Akhtar as a beacon of passion and dedication to the contemporary art of Pakistan. The studio space is a multi-floor structure which shines brightly through the hustle and bustle of Johar Town, revealing the large-scale interior through its running windows. This is an ideal space for the creation and teaching of art, as it gets flooded with natural light and has an open space on each floor. Each running wall of the space had artwork installed in both salon-style hanging and traditional single frames that kept the viewer mesmerized by the large-scale drawings.
Saeed Akhtar's artwork
The foundations of visualization are built on observation of light and shadow, the direction of the line, capturing the expression of the subject and the movement of the artist's hand on the surface. Here the artist reveals that mastery in manifesting the human spirit as a visual requires relinquishing control over the medium, as the portrait begins with the eyes and moves to the outer edges of the paper. As the artist's hand travels from the tightly packed facial muscles, it begins to gently create a depth of shadows and tones that eventually reach the wispy line work of the turban and hair, becoming a poetic representation of the human condition that is surrounded by an uncontrollable environment. The masculine is in contrast with the feminine; stoicism in the male portrait creates a contrast with the seductive features of female protagonists. A sense of night and day is created between the series of portraits, as the imagination begins to view the body of work as a gathering of tribesmen. These nomadic gypsies of a distant land, perhaps a desert weathering their facial features allow the viewer to create their own fantastical story around each portrait.
An artwork by Saeed Akhtar
Saeed Akhtar creates these cinematic characters that carry the weight of an untold story within the eyes and gradient of meticulously layered graphite. There is a driving energy imbued into the subjects that reflect the artist's inner world that is intuitive in nature. Their hypnotic and meditative pace allows the viewer to draw closer to the details of the portrait, while stepping away to gaze back at the intensity captured within the fine lines and wrinkles of the face. The immediacy of the line work, the control of weight and volume in graphite and the sculptural quality of the light captured within the portrait, create a balance between realism and abstraction. The sign of a true master is their ability to craft a multiplicity of narratives with a single composition, the work of Saeed Akhtar is relatable and resonates with people of all ages.
Saeed Akhtar (Pic credits to Mobeen Ansari)
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