Muhammed Kazim
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
Muhammed Kazim
In a league of his own
Muhammed Kazim’s sad demise early this year robbed the art fraternity of a unique printmaker. He was remembered at an exhibition organised in his honour at Canvas Gallery, Karachi recently. Fellow artists paid homage to the departed soul by contributing their paintings to this tribute show.
Kazim’s journey in the field of art began in 1960 when he migrated to Pakistan from Hyderabad, Deccan. As a young 20 year old, he spent his early years working in advertising agencies, but soon realised the importance of academic art education. On the advice of senior artist Masood Kohari, he decided to enroll in an art school to acquire formal training. A diploma in graphic design from the Karachi School of Art in 1978 paved the way for his long tenure with the Karachi Television Studios of PTV as a graphic designer.
Along with his professional career, Kazim was also developing as a practicing artist. In the early eighties when artists in Karachi were busy with oil on canvas or watercolour on paper, Muhammed Kazim sought individuality by opting to express in the medium of printmaking. Once again, encouragement came from Kohari. On his suggestion, he began experimenting with handmade paper for innovative, original editions of relief prints. A rigorous period of trial and error followed but he was unable to perfect his techniques of separating the paper from the press frame. A visit to Japan acquainted the artist with Japanese printmaking methods and paper recycling processes. On his return to Pakistan he began making his own paper with pulp as per his requirements. Handmade paper is receptive to ink and colour and can also be tinted with colour powder. Kazim’s prints are pressed through moulds of wood or plaster of Paris to attain a sculpted or embossed effect and are then coloured with powder or brush painted by hand.
An early 1989 exhibition of paper, relief and etching prints by Kazim revealed a raw rudimentary art practice mimicking cave art in style and form. The artist tried to simulate the texture and colour of weather-beaten stone and brick tablets found at archeological sites and attempted to juxtapose them with primitive signs and ciphers. His imagery became more defined as he began to introduce peasant women performing domestic chores. This new development was well received. The Mohenjodaro series was born and with it came popular appeal. The next few years saw Kazim busy making relief prints crowded with choli clad women in broad white bracelets, primitive patterns, icons and artifacts of Indus Valley in earthy hues of ochre and terra cotta.
To encourage and support this emerging art process, Riffat Alvi, curator of VM Art Gallery hosted his first exhibition at the Rangoonwala Centre. Similar shows followed at Al Hamra Centre, Lahore and The Gallery, Islamabad. Meanwhile Kazim kept attending printmaking workshops and courses and was continuously participating in international exhibitions in countries like Japan, Hong Kong, Poland, Norway, Turkey, etc. In 1994 he won a Bronze medal at the Sixth National Exhibition, Islamabad. In 1995, he was awarded a two month residency in a Chicago artist’s international programme which gave him an opportunity to work with the distinguished printmaker David John at Ancor Graphic. The latest foreign entry of Kazim’s work was at the Fourth International Prints Festiva Gravura, Euora in Portugal just a few years ago. Here at home Kazim has had almost a dozen exhibitions since 1989 with countless group participations on the side.
With advancing age the rigorous relief print process began to take its toll and Kazim gradually eased into oil on canvas. In the last five years it was his oils, exact replicas of the print imagery, which sustained his signature. But in the relief print Kazim introduced a new trend, one which has not been emulated widely and it is this novelty that will remain the distinguishing feature of his artistic career.
Artists participating in the tribute show had submitted a motley collection of paintings not all of which were of the highest quality but then it is the sentiment that counts. Hanif Shehzad had contributed a new piece quite unlike his usual work and AQ Arif’s ‘Khana Kaaba’ composition was eye catching as was Babar Ali’s pastel portrait. Unfortunately Kazim’s own work on display, exorbitantly priced, was not his best either. Surprisingly the works appeared freshly painted, garish and stiff and the compositions were a sharp contrast to, and reminded one even more of Kazim’s early originals — the authentic Mohenjodaro series of embossed relief prints — softly pressed on handmade paper in misty tonalities of earthy ochers, terracotta’s and sludgy greens. A retrospective comprising these (genuine) originals would be a befitting tribute to the departed soul — and if a premium is accruing on his work then it is these originals that deserve it. — Salwat Ali
