Anwar Jalal Shemza
Composition in Lime Green on a Crimson Background, 1959
Oil on hand-dyed cloth on mount board on hardboard
54 x 42 cm
21 1/4 x 16 1/2 in
Framed: 77.8 x 65.7 x 3.8 cm
30 5/8 x 25 7/8 x 1 1/2 in
21 1/4 x 16 1/2 in
Framed: 77.8 x 65.7 x 3.8 cm
30 5/8 x 25 7/8 x 1 1/2 in
Anwar Jalal Shemza (b.1928 – d.1985 Stafford, UK) was born in Simla, India, to Kashmiri and Punjabi parents. He attended The Mayo School of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in...
Anwar Jalal Shemza (b.1928 – d.1985 Stafford, UK) was born in Simla, India, to Kashmiri and Punjabi parents. He attended The Mayo School of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in 1947. As a young artist and writer, he was an active participant in Urdu literary circles; publishing multiple novels and poems, performing radio plays, and editing journals. In 1952, he co-founded the Lahore Art Circle - a group of young artists interested in modernism and abstraction, rebelling against the uniform socialist realist style espoused by some progressives.
In 1956, already an established artist in Pakistan, he relocated to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. This move marked a significant change in the artist’s life and practice. While studying he was astonished to hear one of his lecturers, famed art historian E.H. Gombrich, characterise Islamic art as purely functional. This was a pivotal moment, leading Shemza to abandon previous work and embark on a journey to create a dramatically different style and visual language. He drew on an array of references, from carpet patterns and calligraphic forms to the environments around him: Mughal architecture from Lahore, Pakistan and the rural landscapes of Stafford, England.
Shemza’s dedicated, formalist practice was informed by his migration - synthesising cultural references. Shemza is representative of a generation of artists who came to Britain in the wake of decolonisation – his experience of migration contributing to forming a dedicated practice synthesising varying techniques and traditions. Art historian Iftikhar Dadi argues that Anwar Jalal Shemza’s work is instrumental in the historical legacy of transnational modernism.
Composition in Lime Green on a Crimson Background (1959) is an exemplary early work, where Shemza breaks down the structure of shapes to come to a resolved understanding. Parallels can be drawn between a looping structure of language found in his fictional writing and the arrangements he developed through painting. Through extensive experimentation, he cultivated an outstanding formalist lexis. Shemza’s calligraphic abstraction is universalising - unmistakably repeating the shape of the Roman letters B and D with the fluid gesture of Arabic lettering, the artist states ‘my paintings are not only to look at but are also writings to be read.’
In 1956, already an established artist in Pakistan, he relocated to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. This move marked a significant change in the artist’s life and practice. While studying he was astonished to hear one of his lecturers, famed art historian E.H. Gombrich, characterise Islamic art as purely functional. This was a pivotal moment, leading Shemza to abandon previous work and embark on a journey to create a dramatically different style and visual language. He drew on an array of references, from carpet patterns and calligraphic forms to the environments around him: Mughal architecture from Lahore, Pakistan and the rural landscapes of Stafford, England.
Shemza’s dedicated, formalist practice was informed by his migration - synthesising cultural references. Shemza is representative of a generation of artists who came to Britain in the wake of decolonisation – his experience of migration contributing to forming a dedicated practice synthesising varying techniques and traditions. Art historian Iftikhar Dadi argues that Anwar Jalal Shemza’s work is instrumental in the historical legacy of transnational modernism.
Composition in Lime Green on a Crimson Background (1959) is an exemplary early work, where Shemza breaks down the structure of shapes to come to a resolved understanding. Parallels can be drawn between a looping structure of language found in his fictional writing and the arrangements he developed through painting. Through extensive experimentation, he cultivated an outstanding formalist lexis. Shemza’s calligraphic abstraction is universalising - unmistakably repeating the shape of the Roman letters B and D with the fluid gesture of Arabic lettering, the artist states ‘my paintings are not only to look at but are also writings to be read.’