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Not Made for Each Other |
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Green Cardamom with VM Art Gallery, Karachi, 3rd November 2009 to 14th November 2009 |
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New works by Ahmed Ali Manganhar
Inspired by the techniques of film billboard painters, and with a wink to ideas of life imitating art, Ahmed Ali Manganhar’s new series of works explores the formal techniques of the film billboard genre. Through witty manipulations of colour and texture he exploits the media to startling effect, critiquing what he calls ‘the central myth’ in cinema, of romantic love between a man and a woman, and claiming particular moments in film as moments from his own life.
Part formal, painterly exploration and part critique of the myths propagated by commercial cinema, Manganhar’s acrylic on canvas works are striking in their use of colour to create a depth of texture. Sporting images of well known film stars – Waheed Murad in drag, Aurat Raj (1979); Waheeda Rehman and Guru Dutt reliving their star-crossed encounter, Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) – in familiar poses, the works use layered imagery or a hypnotic manipulation of colour combined with Manganhar’s singular painting technique, drawing the viewer in.
Speaking about this series of works the artist states:
‘As a child, I spent much time watching the craftsmen who came every Thursday to my small town, Tando Allahyar, from neighbouring Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas. They came to paint large film billboards in water colour inside of three hours, the masters asking their students to make graphs to paint in middle tones, in a half finished form that seemed so magical to me. Then the master would that take the brush and lay out the finishing touches in fluorescent colours that brought alive the faces of famous actresses but killed the painterly quality of the image. I have tried to go back to that way of painting in middle tones in this series.
I look at these images from Pakistani and Hindustani commercial cinema and paint the moment in them that I recognize as part of the story of my life. I do not know if film imitates life or if life imitates kitsch art, I can not separate the real from the imaginary as stored in memory, but I have painted and recreated these images from films that I feel are made weak by the central myth of romantic love between a man and a woman.'
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Press Release |
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A. A. Manganhar, What’s Love Got To Do With It, 2009, Acrylic on Canvas, 46.75 x 17 inches
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