Contemporaray Miniature Paintings

An article by Atteqa Ali

Safdar Qureshi is afraid of being labeled as unoriginal. He does not want to be accused of copying others in his art. The artist points out carefully how he developed his imagery. There is a history behind it—it is a very personal one. The minimal lines that he paints or draws on a wasli originate from stitching, threads, and needles. These are all tailors’ tools and Safdar once called this profession his own. Thus, the artist’s personal journey is the basis of his visual vocabulary. It is taken from his life and turned into pictures. As such, Safdar’s imagery is original, coming from him and returning back to his creation.

However, as postmodern theory has taught us, there is no such thing as originality. Things and people outside of ourselves mediate even our most personal desires and beliefs. The environment in which we live affects how we think and act. We are products of the time and space that we inhabit. More specifically, sociopolitical, historical, and economic conditions shape the ways in which we see and understand the world. These things that lie beyond our control always limit us.

Within this formulation of how human existence functions, it is fair enough to take a note of the influences entering into an artist’s work. Safdar Qureshi’s art comes out of his experiences before he attended the National College of Arts (NCA); however, the impression that this school has left on him is much more apparent. Safdar is a recent graduate of the Miniature Painting Department, passing out in 2005.

The department at the college has steadily produced graduates in the field since it became a major course offering in 1985. With a foundation in the basics of the technique, many artists have taken to experimenting with it in the manner of artists working for Mughal Emperors (1526-1857). Today, miniature painting as a field contributes to the growth and development of global contemporary art. Artists working in this medium play with its preciousness.

The method is weighed down as a traditional method, understood by some as one that has and needs to stay the same. While artists today may learn about and blend together several historical schools of miniature painting, the “traditional” style they appropriate is in fact a multi-faceted combination of all kinds of sources. In essence, by making their own adaptations, they are not appropriating the tradition but participating in it. So to uphold the method as it has been practiced in the past, it is vital that artists today continue to expand its parameters.

Safdar Qureshi’s art is possible because of the developments in the NCA department. He has selected to follow in the approach that has changed the face of contemporary art, both here and abroad. His paintings have a minimalist quality to them, comparable to the kind of art produced by some of the most interesting practitioners in miniature painting.

Safdar’s lines of paint mimic the sewing of thread in fabric; however, they appear as non-referential. The reason for this facade is because he reduces and abstracts these formal elements in his paintings. He uses few visual devices to tell his stories. Working as a tailor to support his family, Safdar’s experiences from this time haunt his work today. However, he does not show the ghosts of his past in a direct manner. Instead, he minimizes the imagery, and distills it to simply lines.

In this process, Safdar’s work recalls art from a different time and place as well. Is the artist copying everyone with whom he comes into contact? This is not entirely true. It happens in many instances that different artists develop the same type of imagery without being aware of the other’s work. Perhaps Safdar has not seen the art of Agnes Martin who worked in the 1950s and 1960s on small-scale abstractions. Her medium was oil on canvas, but Safdar’s imagery recalls her simple, meditative lines that she methodically painted.

Piet Mondrian, an artist active in the early twentieth century, is another artist summoned in Safdar Qureshi’s work. This time, it is in the process of achieving abstraction. Mondrian underwent a digitalizing method in his early paintings, in which he simplified forms in nature to horizontal and vertical lines. Safdar reduces his life as a tailor to stitches. Although they are not coming from the same position, the resulting imagery is strikingly similar.

A difference to note between Safdar’s work and the art of these earlier practitioners is that in the former, viewers will find elements that contradict the formulaic lines that cover most of his paintings. In them, he makes stitches that look as if they close wounds and gashes in the human body. These elements lie in contrast to the trance-like overall imagery. One can imagine the artist putting these marks down in a consistent manner. However, when one comes across these enigmatic body stitches, the calm is shaken. Instead, a clue is added to the mysterious story rendered by the artist. It is perhaps related to a personal dimension that is unrelated to anyone or anything outside of himself. It is this element that gives more meaning to Safdar’s work.

one can view this exhibition online at www.yellowfactor.com

Author: (c) Atteqa Ali
Art Critique
Pakistan.