Lot 61: Untitled (Linear Composition in Red and Green)

ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA (1928-1985)
Untitled (Linear Composition in Red and Green)
signed and dated in Urdu (lower left); signed, dated and inscribed ' 1965 Anwar Shemza linear composition in Red & Green ink on handmade paper 76 x 50.5 cms (on the reverse)
ink on handmade paper
23 x 15 5/8 in. (58 x 39.6 cm.)
Painted in 1965

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Anwar Jalal Shemza is revered as one of Pakistan's greatest contemporary artists. Shemza had his initial training at the Mayo School of Art, Lahore before enrolling at the Slade School of Art, London in 1956. He was a contemporary of Francis Newton Souza and Avinash Chandra, the three having exhibited together at one point with Victor Musgrave at Gallery One, London. Shemza drew his greatest inspiration from Mughal miniatures and Paul Klee, ironically on the two sides of his cultural spectrum.
His unique technical innovation began circa 1959, he developed the use of frayed muslin which gave a gauze net-like finish creating a distinctive texture. Shemza would first dip the muslin in gouache or another medium and then wring out the paint; he would then lay the muslin down on to the main surface of his work with newspaper on top and proceed to walk all over it in slippers.

From the early 1960s Shemza embarked on his very popular 'B/D' letters series which rendered his works with both calligraphic and architectonic qualities inspired by the ornamentation of Lahore's Shishmahal Fort. While lot 60 employs these 'B/D'motifs in the embellishments of the vessels comprising the overall still-life, this work takes the symbolism to an extreme. The composition at once evokes the 1960s era Minimalism of Sol Lewitt and Frank Stella and yet the abstracted 'B/D's also start to resemble fingerprints.

See detail on frontispiece