Art Facts: Intimate encounters...

The miniature painting is a cultural traditional work of art for us but it is also seen throughout the world in various other cultures. It is an immemorial style of art in our history and is famous for its meticulous and detailed work. This art form continues today by artists from around the globe. Nowadays the artists use miniature painting in today's modern art with new ideas and styles and Farhat Ali is one of them.
In a recent exhibition of paintings by Farhat Ali titled 'Intimate Encounters on the Fractured Landscape' at Sanat Gallery, Karachi an amalgamation of traditional Mughal art and western characters by the artist resulted in paintings that speak for themselves.
Farhat tried his hand on a new and captivating idea in miniature. It seemed clearly that by introducing such theme he wanted to create humorous, enlightening and revealing paintings through this blend which might helped him to create a new and novel style of his own.
He has fused the historical images appearing to dissolve into sensuous, contemporary forms and narratives. Exercising his liberty abounding with dramatic colours he tried to create a romantic atmosphere in almost all the paintings.
These dramatic and romantic expressions are traditionally present in the technique of miniature. He may be wanted to explore the creativity between tradition and modernity.
Miniatures are intense referring to an elemental passion that is both intuitive and instinctive. But the imagery in Farhat's paintings was mainly representative of female forms and Mughal male figures whereas in some pieces a Mughal male figure replace the female figure in a creative and charming way. In some of the works he used religious icons of other cultures and some fairy tale characters.
He adjusts nude human figures with the Mughal court females and male figures in various gestures and situations. He balanced his compositions with rich colours against monotone background, which some times have two or three colours but devoid of other structures or foliage.
While in some paintings he painted shrubs and herbs, a flower or a couch to create a situation or a scene for the characters. The theme of his paintings is mainly love depicting two characters a male and a female one from Mughal era the other from modern times.
Blending opulent figures and dazzling colours in his paintings Farhat disclosed what are commonly classed as exceptional art of classicism or Renaissance movements. In those times such works were associated with the upper class, aristocracy and wealth in the west.
These traditional paintings represent the European concept of art. Today many museums around the world preserved such pieces of art and display them as examples of artistic skills and craftsmanship.
Farhat explored various global and social concepts through his paintings by merging the two opposite cultures and identities.
He used cultural styles and imagery in his works to understand and question certain issues related to human nature and class.
He merged European Renaissance figures with Mughal characters developing a new style of narrating his human stories.
One of his paintings depicted a Mughal guard attacked by two unarmed men and three cupids in the sky were aiming their arrows towards them.
Another painting revealed a Mughal king in the arms of an English maiden. So in a way he touched the theme which was believed to be a western subject matter.
His current works fused iconic figures, mythological or human from different historic mythologies and epics of various cultures especially western folklores and Mughal era. He created images in a miniature style to produce true impressions of his themes.
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