Lot 37: BASHIR MIRZA

BASHIR MIRZA 1941-2000 UNTITLED Signed and dated 'Bashir Mirza 74' lower right Oil on canvas 86.5 by 324 cm. (34 by 127½ in.)

Indus Gallery 1975

Gifted by the artist to Saif-ur-Rehman Girami in 1975

Purchased by the current owner from the above in 1988

This work was created after Bashir Mirza had returned to his native Pakistan after spending two years in Europe (1969-1970). Abandoning the abstract paintings he had created in the mid-1960s when he was exposed to Western art and ideas, this work demonstrates the artist's move towards a more figurative form of art.

Painted around the time when the artist was producing the Lonely Girls and Flower series the figures are rendered with flat plains of colour. 'Bashir's importance as a painter lies in the structural strength and expressive quality of his ink drawings, as well as his success in reviving figurative art in a colorful, flat format.' (Marcella Nesom Sirhandi Contemporary Painting in Pakistan, 1992, p.72). During this time Mirza also produced a third series of works which resembled Indian miniature paintings produced on an enlarged scale.

Mirza's skill with such large scale images came in part from his apprenticeship as a billboard painter to earn money before studying at the National College of Arts, Lahore. His training is apparent in this masterful composition.