Strange My Muses Will Sing

There is a depth and sensuousness in the paintings of Laila Shahzada that can only be achieved by an artist who delights in her medium, one who enjoys the entire 'hands on experience' literally applying oils on canvas with fingers as well as brushes.

Laila is one of the most senior artists of Pakistan, and an artist of international repute. An established and important factor in the development of art in the country, the current exhibition displaying her work in the city will give art enthusiasts a long awaited opportunity to view her work for Laila has not exhibited in Pakistan for over a decade.

At the time she began to make a name for herself, there were very few women painters of repute in the country. Zubeida Aga and Anna Molka Ahmed were already well known, but in Karachi, women artists came in to prominence later. As there is little reference material available on the growth of art in the country, younger artists may not be aware of Laila's contribution to the art scene. For that reason, before we look at her present exhibition of paintings on display at the Chawkandi Art, Clifton, it is essential to examine the past.

Laila received her early training in art during her school days in England, where she joined the Royal Drawing Society, and learnt the method of watercolour painting. The first private showing of her work was an exhibition of watercolours sponsored by the renowned artist Fyzee Rahamin and Attiya Begum, at their residence in Karachi. Laila still has the exquisite figure study presented to her by Fyzee on the condition that she continued to paint.

In the early days of Karachi, flamboyant artist Nagi was the centre of art activity in the city. He had a studio in Saddar where all the local artists met and discussed their work and the events of the times. Laila was invited to join the art circle and under Nagi's tutelage, began to study the technique of oil painting.

The first major exhibition of her work, the Drift Mood series, was seen at the Arts Council Karachi in 1964. Using drift-wood as her inspiration the artist created tortuous forms that spread across the canvas, vibrant with emotion in strong earthy colour. This series was exhibited in a group show in London sponsored by the Taurus Arts Group in '75 and at the Chiltern Gallery London the same year when Laila held her first solo exhibition in the UK.

The first artist in Pakistan to seek inspiration from the Indus Valley Civilisation, her venture into history and mythology expressed the essential timeless qualities of human experience. Laila's series on this Indus valley theme was exhibited in Karachi, sponsored by the Pakistan Tourism Corporation in 1976. The same year she was featured in a film on art produced by a leading business corporation.

Laila had her first American exhibition at the Runyon Winchell Gallery in New York and was the first, indeed the only artist from Pakistan to be honored with the "Key to the City" of New York and the Bicentennial Gold Medallion. Exhibitions followed in Pakistan and Tokyo in the 80's and in Monte Carlo in 1983. She returned to London in '85 for a solo exhibition of her work at the Drian Gallery.

Laila was honoured in Pakistan by the President's Award, the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz in 1986 and that same year participated in a group show at the Shorouk's International Gallery, Regent Street, London. In the late 80's, she was selected to participate in an international display at the Westminster Gallery, London and in '89 her work was shown in exhibition at the Barbican Gallery.

For the last few years, Laila has been developing a series inspired by the mountainous areas of the Northern region, Gilgit, Skardu and Hunza. Her work has been included in an exhibition to be held at the Pasadena Museum, California in February 1994, where her landscapes were judged by eminent critics to be on par with the work of Georgia O'Keefe. It is high time Laila showed her work 'at home' again at an exhibition almost retrospective in flavor. It appears that the latest work is a synthesis of all that has gone before; landscapes alive with organisms. Trees that pulsate as the driftwood moods and the atmospheric timelessness of Mohenjodaro. There are also landscapes that shimmer as promised dreams, the unattainable mirage.

Recently Laila has spent time in the interior of Sindh where she found much to inspire her in the beauty of the fragmented structures of old ruins. The strong turquoise shades of tiles favoured in the past has also entered her landscape. Included in the exhibition are several paintings of simple, uncluttered forms using pure colours and strong outline, a style that earned her much acclaim in the West.

The mountainous landscapes, inspired by topography are actually landscapes of an inner vision. Study the mountains hard, you will find sleeping giants, powerful forms lolling and recumbent, waiting to awaken, to stir and bring about avalanches, to change the scenic structure and challenge even the forces of nature.

Far from resting on her laurels, Laila works at her painting harder than ever. Most of her time is given to art and now it is the process of painting that is essential to her rather than the performance of exhibiting her work.

In essence, her work brings to mind a line in the translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses: 'Of forms that suffer transformations strange my muses will sing.'

By Marjorie Husain
Excerpts from ART, Tuesday Review Dec 14 – 20, 1993