Quddus mirza biography of donald

Quddus Mirza is a Pakistani art critic, artist, and art educator based in Lahore.

Something we all yearn for, yet scarcely recall, is the wide-eyed wonder, reckless abandon and unrestrained creative bursts of childhood, when our expression was unquestioning and unfiltered While this encourages a more profound discourse, a certain level of authenticity is sacrificed in the process. It takes years of unlearning and relearning before one is able to regain that ingenuity.

But the art that emerges from this exercise resides in the realm of the therapeutic. This is something of what artist, academic and art critic Quddus Mirza has been able to achieve through his practice. Yet the visual naivety is a farce, and one can simultaneously sense a practised hand and seasoned mind put through hours of deliberation, behind each stroke of vibrant paint and each tone of colour, in service of the overarching narrative.

Thus, the work seems at once impulsive and considered. Yet this narrative is elusive, provoking an emotion and a fleeting sensation before it draws out an articulate intellectual response. There seems to be a sense of dichotomy in each canvas; the placid titles are negated by the violent crimson slashed on to the surface with urgency; the childlike language speaks with a sophisticated vocabulary; the imagery flips between sociopolitical commentary and disarming still-life creations.

Quddus Mirza, an artist, art critic, and independent curator, served as the Head of the Fine Art Department at the National College of Arts, Lahore, before joining BNU. He holds a BFA from Missing: donald.

This creates a sense of escapism, of seeking solace in mundanity and simpler times, in order to process the horrors that plague the present. This is articulated through a combination of diverse forms of expression, from oil painting to collage with found images and objects, which co-exist in pockets of conflicting visuals, spread out across the canvas, yet connected by swathes of paint and gestural line drawings that string them into a singular — yet paradoxical — narrative.

Meanings and connotations are fluid, differing with each viewer and viewing. The violence the artist alludes to is not as such seen as felt in the movement and frenetic kinetic energy of the brush, and the chaos it generates. Yet, it is not just the worked areas of the canvas that create this impact, but also the spaces in between.

The work is aimed more inward, rather than being driven by the need to appease an audience. However, the contradictions it carries beg the question: is the childlike language trying to placate dark truths to make them more palatable, or is it trying to hide a darker interior? Perhaps this primal language so convincingly invokes the sense of aggression because it emerges from a similar state of being, where basal needs are paramount and the id rules supreme.