An icon called Ajaz Anwar

The restoration painter
 

by Gwen Herat

in Lahore, Pakistan

'What is Pakistani art? I mused until I was introduced to Dr. Ajaz Anwar. The genial artist took one long look at me before I said I am some sort of an art critic from Sri Lanka.'

'No' he cut me short 'Not some sort but an art critic. I guessed it at once'.

Perhaps, Anwar can read people through an artist's eye. He has an instant instinct of what people are made of. To me this genius represented a total artist with dishevelled hair, carelessly dressed though his exterior was no indication to the strong intellectual character that drew me to him even for a fleeting moment. This is what intellects are made of, the ones who are capable of having an immediate impact on some one in their exclusive world.

As I browsed around the Art Gallery of the National College of Arts in Lahore, Dr. Anwar had disappeared but joined me later to say how passionate he was about Old Lahore and her buildings and how he wanted to project the city through their mystique and leave behind their legends in people's minds.

He brings indoor their brilliance, the cultural heritage of Lahore not confining them to paintings on walls but also within the folds of boos that prizes all Pakistanis. Dr. Anwar is the guardian and creator of this Art Gallery where his home and heart lie.

Born in Ludhiana in 1946, his father was a cartoonist who apparently had stirred his passion from childhood and from whom he drew his inspiration. After obtaining his M.A. in Fine Arts and a Gold medal in 1967, he complete his Ph.D in Muslim architecture, in Turkey in 1978 and proceeded to do a course on Conservation of Cultural Property at ENESCO, Rome in 1977. From 1972 he has been lecturing until he became Professor and Director of Art Gallery NCA, Lahore to date.

Dr. Anwar has exhibited his works in lahore, Rawalpindi, Isalmabad, Ankara, Istanbul, Rome, Kampala, Chandigar, New Delhi and London. In 1997, he was awarded the prestigious President's Medal for Pride of Performance in painting.

What fascinates Dr. Anwar to paint is the oriental charm since time immemorial. On the left bank of the River Ravi is the legendary city of Lahore ranging from the periods of pre-Moghul, Moghul, Sikh, British and post independence.

Dr. Anwar paints every period through their buildings, citadels, mansions as well as many institutions that have a bearing on periodic significance. He paints them in their bare nakedness. He does not eliminate nor add anything to enhance their originality.

The end result is the brilliance, spectacular wonders of old Lahore art upon their exteriors. He traps them as they are, especially in the morning sun when activity of day-to-day-life, emerges each morning.

He brings to his paintings an austere beauty of form of truly Pakistani sculpture but he is also a great colourist who has mastered the handling of light. In place of decorative deal and fanciful grace, Dr. Anwar is highly individual and distinctive in quality that is different from those so often admired for contemporary or modern art.

He offers harmony and a classical severity in his beloved art form together with the power to capture the fall of light and makes his richly harmonious colouring so appealing to the modern eye.

His vision is deeply personal; his allure for old Lahore buildings with a sense of alienation is common to all his works. Surprisingly his subject matter is confined only to what he likes most to paint; buildings and more buildings. In a sense, he discovers life within them and brings them into projection through his medium.

Like pastel and oil to others, his forte rests on water colour. He is a virtuoso at it and the remarkable effect it has on his works, naturally makes him one of Lahore's exponents in this art.

Dr. Anwar has left an impressionable effect on me and as one of those very few people from Sri Lanka with a critical eye for art, he amazed me purely for the fact that I had no opportunity to gaze upon Lahore (Pakistan) art earlier. I found them rich, colourful, traditional and classical.

Fascinated by the textures of buildings, this versatile artist, makes the people of Lahore a proud community.

He has captured their heritage for visitors like me to realize the cultural, historical and conventional society of Lahore. He has put their pride and ego on a palette, a testimony not only for history but for their magnificent architecture ranging down the centuries. Modernity has not touched their facade. Lahore becomes Dr. Ajaz Anwar.

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