By Syeda Shehrbano Kazim
A one-day unique exhibition Woven Narratives: Dialogues with Piet Mondrian, was held against the colourful Mondrian façade of the Netherlands Embassy office building, in collaboration with Satrang Gallery and sponsored by Akzo Nobel.
Ambassador Jeannette Seppen in her welcome address said she was very pleased to host this unique exhibition by Ghulam Hussain, as the embassy façade was the perfect backdrop. The Dutch company Akzo Nobel had painted the façade in ‘The Colours of Mondrian’ in 2014, to bring a little Dutch colour into our daily lives.
Ambassador Seppen went on to say, “It is wonderful that not only the Dutch company Akzo Nobel, but also a contemporary Pakistani artist found inspiration in one of the Netherlands’ greatest painters of the early 20th century, Piet Mondrian.”
She continued, “Ghulam Hussain has embarked on a dialogue with this painter, in a very creative manner. What is striking is that wherever one stands when looking at the art pieces, a different image emerges. It compels the observer to engage in a dialogue with the works of art. The conversation goes from a subtle, single-coloured woven, patchwork, to the late Mondrian’s shapes and colours. What makes Ghulam’s creations so fascinating is that not only one feels invited to engage, but that one is looking at a dialogue between Ghulam Hussain and Piet Mondrian.”
Satrang Gallery and Seren Arts Programme Director Asma Rashid Khan said, “Ghulam Hussain’s work presents beautifully woven patterns and designs, building a mesh of layers, where disparate individual threads come together in tapestry of colour, pattern and form to create a new formation and foundation. Hussain’s work not only pays homage to an age old craft, but it also demonstrates to the viewer the benefits of combining separate schools of thought, traditions and philosophies to form a new, mutually favourable fusion.”
Ghulam Hussain, who was inspired by visits to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, said, “I graduated in 2009 as a miniaturist from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan. My family is craft orientated and as they were my initial inspiration, my artwork is craft based. Most of it revolves around the passionate world of childhood memories. My childhood drawings, which filled my school notebooks, show my continued interest in basic shapes, vertical and horizontal lines. I prefer a humanistic approach to what makes a person happy, enriched and fulfilled.”
He added, “This primitive, bold style imagery collaborates with very intricate hand woven Wasli’s and my school note books. This transforms into interesting compositions which stimulate the viewer’s imagination and exploration of one’s own memories. Recent body of work is evolved from my personal interaction with the works of Piet Mondrian, during visits to Museum Of Modern Art New York, few years back. I relate myself with the squares; rectangles and the stripes weaved together. This strong inspiration materialized into series of work, Woven Narratives ‘Dialogue with Piet Mondrian’.”
Curator Zahra Khan said, “In this new body of work, Hussain pays homage to the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, the grand master who played an influential role in the famed De Stijl movement and in contemporary art history. Hussain has created intricate, hand woven, tapestries inspired by Piet Mondrian’s unique paintings. These tapestries which appear deceptively white with occasional vertical and horizontal black lines when viewed full on, reveal patterns of colour blocks and grids when seen from an angle. They morph into Neoplasticism forms, the term Mondrian called his minimalist, abstract paintings which were formed of black vertical and horizontal lines and blocks of primary colours – red, yellow and blue.”
The show pays homage to an age old craft, but it also demonstrates the possibilities that emanate from combining separate schools of thought, traditions and philosophies to create fusion pieces.