Sixty four years of Pakistani have seen Urdu Art criticism in Pakistan grow from merely a few notices here and there to a fully grown genre. Before the partition Art criticism was a genre to be reckoned with in former Bombay, Bengal and Madras presidencies. With the founding of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore and flowering of the Punjab School of painting some write-ups on Abdul Rahman Chughtai and Mughal paintings appeared but it didn't look a genre in its own right.
With the publication of renowned Urdu and Punjabi poet and research scholar Shafi Aqil's "Pakistan ke Saat Musawwir" - the fifth book on Pakistani painters - one could say that the Urdu art criticism could compare itself with any body of work in the subcontinent. Shafi Aqil's art-criticism kept on appearing in the leading Urdu weekly Akhbar-i-Jahan - and sometimes in a leading Urdu daily - but no one thought that Shafi Aqil would turn his attention to a more systematic art criticism. Pakistan's Saat Musawwir is a well written and produced book. It discusses Sadequain, A.S. Nagi, Hanif Ramay, Iqbal Mehdi, Ghulam Rasool, Abrar Tirmizi and Gul Muhammad Khatri. Some of these artists are well-known celebrities and some are less known painters but the way Shafi Aqil has discussed their lives and art is so interesting that even the less known painters come alive.
I take Pakistan ke Saat Musawwir for its peculiar treatment of painters discussed in this book. Sadequain believed that every issue which engaged the attention of the world should engage artist's attention; Shafi Aqil writes. He discusses A S Nagi's Amritsar days when he enjoyed the company of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Dr M.D. Taseer, Dr Akhtar Hussain Raipuri and Dr Imdad Hussain. His first Art teacher was Mir Backlay, and then S.G. Thakur Singh was his mentor who has been discussed in Musarrat Hussain's Paintings in the Punjab Plains and had founded Indian Academy of Fine Arts. Nagi's family background was rich and he had a sojourn in Paris to drink deep at the French fountain of Art.
Hanif Ramay's inspiration for Islamic Art, based on the concept of Tauheed is also discussed quite knowledgeably. Iqbal Mehdi began as a portrait painter no different from a Cinema publicity artisan. He gradually matured but he always needed references for his painting.
Ghulam Rasool's penchant for Punjab landscape, and Abrar Tirmazi and Gul Muhammad Khatri's paintings are also discussed quite deeply. This has been Shafi Aqil's way of writing on all painters he has written about in his five books.
What makes Shafi Aqil a natural chronicler of Pakistan Art is the fact that he himself rose from an artisan to painter. He doesn't mind discussing his career from an humble beginning as if he, as a successful person in his own right, takes pleasure from sharing poets about his life, which insecure and struggling writers or artists won't dare. It requires someone to be something to tell one's bitter past. All the great biographies, be they of St. Augustine, Rousseau, Gorky, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, are known to him.
As one who knows Shafi Aqil intimately and has the privilege of knowing a good number of artists he has been quite objective in discussing all painters who have been thought worthy of attention. While he has competently discussed their art he has not forgotten to describe the foibles and pranks which made them interesting fellows. His first book "Do Musawwir" was about Bashir Mirza and Ozzir Zuby, his book "Char Jadid Musawwir" discussed Ahmed Perwaiz, Syed Ali Imam, Enver Jamal Shamza and Qutb Shaikh. His other two books, 'Taswir Aur Musawwir' and 'Musawwir Aur Musawwir', discuss the entire landscape and background of Pakistan painting. The beauty of all these books is that Shafi Aqil has paid attention to the perspective as well as making that perspective part of the general atmosphere for art and artists in the sub-continent.
I believe that each artist who has been discussed has been done full justice and many important details which could be deemed unnecessary became absolutely essential to the overall appreciation of the artists.
As someone who has written more than on 50 painters in English so far, I have always found that most of the Pakistani artists don't relate their art to their age. Their works don't necessarily describe their schools of thought. I have seen the so called progressive painters succumbing to those schools of thought which make a mockery of their professions. May be some of them don't know that Picasso the thinker was one and the same as Picasso the artist. It was because of these blatant incongruities that I decided to keep myself away from writing on Pakistani Art. May be I am a bit harsh in my views but the majority of our painters have fallen victims to fleeting fads at the expense of their well-considered viewpoints.
Shafi Aqil has chosen to write as he feels about the works of Art. He has seldom gone into the message part of the work and this is possibly the only way of looking which makes an art critic less contentious. He is cognisant of the importance which a painter has assumed. Naturally the art collectors in Pakistan are not driven by ideological concerns. They look upon art for purposes of decoration or for the simple reason that they want to buy fame of an artist and hence we see that Shafi Aqil's list of artists represents a myriad of shades - at times conflicting and varied - and taken together they make an interesting group of painters having their different ways of looking at truth or appearances.
So while studying Shafi Aqil's latest book - along with the previous ones - we can have a good idea about the Kaleidoscope of Pakistani art. Modern Ali Imam is standing with Iqbal Mehdi. Hanif Ramay is rubbing shoulders with Ozzir Zuby. The variety of approaches bewilders one. Our entire world of art could be had under one roof exhibition hall. The past, present and future mingle so intimately with our painters that one doesn't have a sense of contemporaneity while looking at the works of the artists of any single period.
Anyhow Shafi Aqil is to be congratulated that he has searched for "uniqueness" in each artist in his new book and made it more acceptable to his readers than otherwise possible. This is what a creative art critic can do and Shafi Aqil's magnum opus - if we can put together his five books under one cover - has given him the honour of being the pioneer of art criticism in Urdu. He richly deserves the honour which comes with it. PNCA and Academy of Letters should take note of Shafi Aqil's life time achievement while working on their Honours List for the Awards.