Art Collector - Muniza Agha Fawad

A Little Bit of Everything

Often, scheduling a visit to the home of an art collector leads me to have two expectations; the first being that art is often the interest of the wife and that her husband has acquired a taste for it, and the second expectation is that the art collection is comprised of names we all have heard of and come to know. However, a visit to the home of Saleem and Zeba Baig was not at all what I was expecting!

 

“Art is a mutual interest. Saleem and I developed a fondness for art together. We always wanted that our home have few but really good pieces of art,” Zeba reminisces. The pieces in their home are a testimony to her statement! A large piece by Raja Changez Sultan hangs in the foyer, and though it bears the distinct style and subject matter that the artist is known for, the crispness with which the faces appear amidst the dusky mist on the canvas is indicative of the fact that this particular piece is from the painter’s early career.

 

 

Other painters who’s early works feature proudly and prominently in the Baig home are Ali Azmat and Mughees Riaz. A top-less, fat man standing against a wall with a blank canvas nearby bears all the markings of an Ali Azmat piece; the reality of the subject and the ordinariness of the surroundings presented.

 

However, what distinguishes this piece from the artist’s more recent work is the presence of visible brushstrokes, which is a noticeable influence of his teacher Durre Waseem. Mughees Riaz is known best for his foggy and serene landscapes, which he paints almost flat, and in a palette that is neutral and subdued. Colors are rare in his pieces, as is sharp focus, giving the viewer the impression that they stand before the banks of the Ravi River in the dewy fog of dawn. The painting that Mr and Mrs Baig have, on the other hand, is a scene from the Ravi River, but is distinctly less foggy, and a bright orange sun is rising in the sky, and is gently reflected in the waters.

 

 

The works of today’s emerging talents are displayed and even sought after by the couple with zeal that is unique to them. Still-life paintings of flowers by Soraya Sikander and Maryam Khan hang comfortably with works by Lahore-based painters Saadia Babar and Eijaz Malik.

 

Many of the landscapes painted by Kaleem exhibit a combination of knife and brush work. Often the knife leaves behind edges in the pigments, creating the Cubist effect that the artist is well known for. His approach to his work and his style are perhaps a result of his years at NCA. “I was taught by artists who were at the peaks of their careers! Kahlid Iqbal sahib, Saeed Akhtar sahib, Zahoor-ul-Akhlaq sahib, Iqbal Husain, Mohammad Asif, Bashir Ahmed, Colin David, and Mrs. Hashmi were all my teachers, and from them I learned so much, especially about how to be an artist. They were great teachers, and accomplished artists who never commercialized or capitalized on their art. They showed me that you had to just be that good!” recalls Kaleem.

 

 

The couple’s fondness for emerging talent does not mean that established artists and masters are not a part of their collection. A rather ‘social’ scene depicting three friends gathered together around a table in a sort of crowded room, where other people are also present, is a reminder of the figurative works that painter Rooha Ghaznavi used to make. The faces are painted in the style that she had become best known for in the 1990s. Two faces from the Sealed Lips series by the late master Bashir Mirza hang solely and prominently. No other piece of art shares the space that these two paintings have, making the quality and the expression of the pieces stand out even more. The light colored ‘seals’ are prominent on the lips of the orange-skinned figures. The strength of each deliberate line and stroke however dominates the entire composition, taking your eyes throughout the piece and thereby making a statement that is expressed at once, entirely.

 

One of Mussarat Mirza’s unique pieces is proudly displayed in the same room as the two Bashir Mirza pieces, showing at once the breadth of the styles and movements within Pakistani art. The Sukkur-based painter is among the students of Anna Molka Ahmed, and just as her teacher, Mussarat also paints using a palette knife, but unlike the former head of the arts department at Punjab University, who painted scenes from Partition and from rural life in Punjab, Mussarat paints the sandy and dusty environs of interior Sindh, especially Sukkur. Mostly figureless paintings, where the figures are not the focus, the piece that Zeba and Saleem own depicts four women and child, painted in bolder colors, walking through an alley or small residential street, surrounded by buildings.

 

 

The painter of women Nahid Raza is also a favorite for the couple. Nahid’s symbolic representations of women and the issues and struggles associated with this half of humanity are like pieces of literature that one sees, rather than reads. The paintings are loaded with symbols and are employed by the painter to express her thoughts and her observations on society and women. Also known for painting women, painter, writer, and TV personality Anwar Maqsood is also a part of their collection. One unique piece that they own by Anwer is of three faces that are painted with a running pattern almost tattooing their facial-skin. The piece at once recalls the aboriginal practices of face tattooing, as well as reminding one of the mosaic and carving traditions in Islamic art.

 

“We buy what we love. Simple. We want to enjoy and take pleasure in what we see,” explains Saleem. The couple’s combined and mutual love for art was an interesting change in my usual expectation of finding husbands being dragged along with their wives interest for art. Furthermore, Saleem and Zeba’s enthusiasm for emerging talent is unmatched, as their collection is a wonderful mix of works by masters like Bashir Mirza, mixed with early pieces by today’s art-world- heavy weights Mughees Riaz and Ali Azmat, sprinkled with works by the new generation of painters like Soraya Sikander, and then further anchoring their collection with pieces by Nahid Raza, Rooha Ghaznavi, Raja Changez Sultan, and Anwar Maqsood.