Lot 102: Ali Imam (Pakistan, 1924-2002) Untitled (Townscape-day)

Ali Imam (Pakistan, 1924-2002)
Untitled (Townscape-day) Oil on board 49.5 x 61cm (19 1/2 x 24in).

Provenance:Private Collection, UK;Acquired directly from the artist.Born into an artistic family, younger brother of the famed Indian artist Syed Haider Raza, Syed Ali Imam himself was a formative figure in the development of Modern art in the newly formed Pakistan. Despite his conventional academic prowess, Ali Imam decided to pursue a career as an artist. Whilst working as a medical artist at the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, Imam enrolled for evening classes at Bombay's J.J. School of Art. It was here, under the guidance of esteemed artist K.K. Hebbar, that Ali Imam was taught that being a good draughtsman alone was not sufficient to make him an artist. This spurred the young man to leave Bombay and complete his formal education to develop the analytical skills required to create great art.The 1947 partition, pivotal to many artists of the time, tore Ali Imam from India and into the alien city of Lahore in Pakistan. "It was a traumatic experience leaving India but once I left, I never looked back." (S. Ali Imam, 1988, quoted in M. Husain, Ali Imam: Man of the Arts , Foundation for Museum of Modern Art, Karachi, 2003, p.24) An idealistic Marxist even in India, when in Pakistan, Imam, joined the Communist party full time in 1949. His staunch political beliefs and ability to rouse his peers lead to friction between him and the establishment resulting in three stints in prison, in as many years. Along with other notable artists Anwar Jalal Shemza, Mariam Habib, Moyene Najmi, Ahmed Parvez, Shakir Ali and Sheikh Safdar, Ali Imam formed the Lahore Art Circle and they exhibited together throughout Pakistan. Ali Imam, like Shemza and Parvez, travelled to England and whilst in London, in addition to two solo exhibitions, Imam exhibited with Ahmed Parvez and Shemza, at Woodstock Gallery in 1958 at a show entitled 'Pakistan Group London: Five Modern Painters.' Safiuddin Ahmed and Murtaza Bashir making the five. Under the guidance of the well travelled and highly educated artist and doyen, Shakir Ali, these young artists forged a channel of distinctly new art heralding a new epoch both in Pakistan and modernism globally. After over a decade in England, Imam returned to Karachi in 1966 to become principal of Central Institute of Arts and Crafts. In 1970 he founded the Indus Gallery in Karachi which remains, to date, one of the longest running galleries in Pakistan.