Lot 54: Untitled

Mudasssar Manzoor (b. 1979)
Untitled
signed in Urdu (centre left); signed again (on the reverse)
gouache on wasli
20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm.)
Painted in 2007

Paris, Moulin De L'Est, From Lahore To Montmartre, 2007
Antibes, Back From Future, 2007

Salima Hashmi, exhibition catalogue, From Lahore To Montmartre - Miniature Contemporaines du Pakistan, Paris, 2007

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

According to art historian, Salima Hashmi, Mudasser Manzoor "explores the influence of Sufi thought on the visual image. Solitary figures are lost in contemplation, disengaged from the world, yet very much part of its alluring beauty. Although the artist aspires to reach that moment of complete oneness, the human presence draws him back. The female presence is a physical one. The womb/conch shell is both life-giving and suffocating. The desire to bond, and to break free run parallel in these works.
There are references to Chinoiserie, in clouds, plants, trees, and borders. The desire to embellish is not resisted. Manzoor understands how to intertwine delicacy of thought with image. He moulds demonstrable skills and presses them into the service of a personal narrative. There is allegiance to both austerity and splendour. But the over-riding formal concern is to bring to each work a feeling of aesthetic closure." (S. Hashmi, From Lahore to Montmartre: Miniatures Contemporaines du Pakistan, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2007 p. 5)