Creativity is not defined by age. Wahab Jaffer, Naz Ikramullah and Siddiqua Bilgrami — who began their careers in the ’60s and ’70s — continue to paint and exhibit their work

In the current surge of new wave art, veteran modernists continue to hold their own and the recent Chawkandi Gallery show in Karachi of autonomous art by Wahab Jaffer, Naz Ikramullah and Siddiqua Bilgrami was a fair sampling of this ethos. Painting and exhibiting since the `60s and `70s, these three artists are still pursuing their art practice with enthusiasm. Their paintings exhibited over the years have acquainted viewers with their personal journeys and the context of their content. One may encounter elements of sameness in the works at times but in the current rush of complex, confrontational (and often heavilycoded) issue-centred art demanding concentrated engagement, a touch of ease and familiarity calms the nerves.

An original Jaffer artwork can be spotted a mile away so pronounced is his signature style. Technically he paints imaginary portraits of women but it is the kaleidoscopic burst of colour and spontaneous improvisationsof vegetal forms that first hit the eye.

The childlike simplicity of his swirls and squiggles and naïve application of bold colour exhibit Fauvist and Expressionist tendencies. These two styles of painting were very similar, in that each downgraded the traditional emphasis placed on drawing especially figure drawing in favour of colour and overall impact. In general, expressionist portrait painters did not seek to imitate or replicate nature. Instead, they sought to express their emotional response to what they saw, using garish colours, distorted forms and caricature-like imagery.

Ignited by a strong chromatic charge, the mushroom growth of organic imagery in Jaffer`s paintings blossoms into a festive explosion of feelings which contrasts sharply with the unreadable, distant expressions of the women he paints. This dichotomy between inscrutable subject and lively environment is the twist in the plot that is meant to tease the eye and baffle the mind. Altering his compositions withcolour and vocabulary reshuffles, Jaffer continues to portray this contradiction faithfully in every painting. Unresolved, his enigmas still attract attention.

Interpreting the vicissitudes of life through dream and reality Ikramullah`s art needs to be read in the light of her memories, experiences and relationships. A Canadian artist of Pakistani origin, she graduated from the Byam Shaw School of Art in 1959 and by 1963 had specialised in lithography from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has been teaching printmaking at the Ottawa School of Art, and divides her time between Ottawa and Karachi. Her prints and collages are in the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Jordan and the Cartwright Gallery in Bradford.

Painting manually, Ikramullah also uses a computer brush tool and Xerox Colour facility to layer her washes with additional imagery. Her worksare visual documents of her musings, a twining of several stories of people and places from her past and present.

Using a palette of soft, mild colours she conjures haze, blur and mist to evoke the past. The floating apparitions and stationary figures in her paintings speak of dear ones either departed or distanced from her. The fragment, window and door as metaphor are used to reveal her thoughts and position the interior in relation to the exterior.

Glimpses of Indo-Islamic architecture and miniature art references are markers of cultural heritage and her association with them. As compared to the shared bond with the land and its people, a painting of a lone figure caught in the heave and hurls of the sea foregrounds a hostile environment. Unlike emphatic painters the artist articulates through delicate renditions of fleeting clusive expressions.

Bilgrami, the third participant inthe show, enjoys recognition and appreciation as an abstract painter.

Her current paintings highlight pain and suffering among women with special reference to the Iraq war. A departure from her usual style, these works are quasi-real in approach. The loosely rendered figures of women are appropriately grim, disturbed and agitated but her current style is much too naïve for a seasoned artist.

The instinctive brushwork, technical adroitness and bold colour choices ofearlier works such as `Crossroads`, `Ego in Space` and `Sea Rock` speak of an intuitive feel for abstraction which is her real calling.

Worldwide art of the late 19th century is being elbowed out by the postmodern aesthetic but its dwindling form still continues to be in good cheer as it goes about its creative business.

The show was displayed at the Chawkandi Gallery in Karachi from February 16 to February 24, 2017.