Lot 6: Untitled (Rats)

MUHAMMAD ZEESHAN (B. 1980)
Untitled (Rats)
signed and dated in Urdu (lower right)
gouache and silver foil on paper
12¾ x 19¾ in. (32.3 x 50.1)
Executed in 2007

Paris, Galerie Chappe, From Lahore to Montmartre, Contemporary Miniatures from Pakistan , 2007

Galerie Chappe, From Lahore to Montmartre , Paris, 2007
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN


Muhammad Zeeshan originally from the province of Sindh, Pakistan, is a graduate of the National College of Arts, Lahore. Trained in the traditional school of miniature painting, Zeeshan like his contemporaries Talha Rathore and Nusra Latif Qureshi, has replaced the conventional traditional subject matter of miniature painting with his own personal interpretation of socio - politico - religious issues that plague life today.

Zeeshan's works are commentaries on the Afghan wars, Islamphobic propaganda post 9/11, suppression and censorship. To this end Zeeshan has utilized the imagery of guns, daggers, vultures and rodents. Guns juxtaposed with bananas are intended to convey the corruption of young disaffected innocent minds driven to violence. Zeeshan associates the world's politicians with vultures and scavengers feeding off the less privileged. In the exhibition catalogue From Lahore to Montmartre, Contemporary Miniatures from Pakistan , Paris, 2007, Zeeshan recounts how as a young man he worked in a cinema house which showed pornographic movies. In an attempt to put his talent to use he took up the role of painting over the images that were deemed too risque and would offend sensibilities.
"... rodents like mice and rats nibble away food from the inside leaving the outside well intact but the inside hollow and empty. These similarities are found in the leaders of the world as well. For their own interests they can go to any lengths."
(Muhammad Zeeshan, From Lahore to Montmartre, Contemporary Miniatures from Pakistan , Paris, 2007, p. 17)
This particular work depicting a pair of rats facing each other but with their expression and actions 'censored' leave its interpretation to the viewer's imagination.