Ustad Allah Bak͟hsh: Analysis Of Artist And Painting Style

Ustad Allah Bakhsh belonged to the warp of colonial times in India, and he ought to be judged next to his cultural background. Dr. Anwar Sajjad called him a documenter and an illustrator of the Punjab. After partition Ustad understands and reaction to 1947 should be understood in regard to his physical and mental maturity. His art became pleasant, honest.

Biography

Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh belongs to the small town of Wazīrabad. He is one of the famous painters from Pakistan. He recognized for illustrating the rural life and landscape specifically of Punjab on his canvas. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh paved his name as a person who took charge of the folk art on the canvas. The basic theme of his mind's eye revolves around the local and folk cultural heritage, but some his art mulled over by classical western art, which is reflected through the paintings of Hindu mythological characters. He is considered as the novice of landscape and figurative painting in Pakistan. Due to his peculiar thoughtfulness he become only practitioner in the contemporary style landscapes until Khalid Iqbal introduced modern realism in landscape painting of Pakistan in 1956. Most of his work known for folk tales, village life, landscapes, and portraits. He worked mostly in oils and on larger scales but he also experimented with other mediums. He was fluent in water-colors, pen & ink, tempera colors, pencil and paints. At times he combines various mediums to achieve innovative surfaces.

He worked as an apprentice to Ustad Master Abd ul-Allaḥ at a very young age of five years only. He also learnt the art of painting from Master Mīraṅ Bakhsh Naqshs, a known instructor and painter and was also the Vice Principal of the Mayo School of Arts. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh worked for various private agencies as a commercial artist and never sticks to one job. He was invited to teach at Sir J. J. School of Arts, the offer was politely declined by the artist, but he accepted to work at the Mayo School of Arts. He died in October 18, 1978, leaving behind a long list of his admirers and followers. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh was a real asset to this nation. His traditions will be preserved for generations in times to come and his contribution will be long remembered.

Style of Paintings

He is unequalled in the field of art his distinct style of paintings which include lots of faces with different moods and expressions. His paintings are highly expressive and each painting holds a complete tale in itself. His masterpieces include narrative themes, happening and the rural life and landscape of Punjab. Style of the paintings depicts his meticulous observation upon nature. because he used to portray common experience and activity of daily life. His specialty was oil painting on large canvas but being Ustad he mastered the other various forms of sketching and painting mediums including pen and pencil art, tempera colors as well as water colors. He also mastered the art of conflating diverse mediums of painting according to his own aesthetic sense. He presented with various laurels and accolades for his rich expressive and unique work on canvas that reflected the folk tale cultural heritage and country side scenes aesthetically. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh specialty was in oil painting and that too on large canvases. But being an Ustad, he had mastery over other forms of painting and sketching mediums like the water colors, tempera colors, pencil work and even pen and ink. He could even combine different mediums suiting to his aesthetic nature and innovative mind.

Elements of His Paintings

He was inspired by the approach and technique of Archibald Herman Müller, the German citizen who lived and worked in India and was considered as the great talent of the 20th century. The elements of the painting are the basic components and building blocks of a painting. In the painting of Allaḥ Bakhsh color or hue is the heart of his painting the use appealing color schemes gives the idea of satisfying aesthetic standards and sensibilities of an artist. Folktales like Hīr Ranj͟ha and Sauḥnī Maḥiwal or the village girls gathered to fetch water on and around a well shows endless ways of his color observation. The costumes painted by him tell the story of cultural diversity of that era. Just because of color palette he defines the style of the entire body work. Masterpiece of his life Talism-i-Hoshruba

Iconoclastic image of Krishna and associated myths and Natak (indigenous theatre) compelled Allaḥ Bakhsh to adopt mythological and theatrical themes and subjects for his painting. Apart from that the hues of background created haziness which creates depth and eye movement. This attitude has been approved by the painters of Romanticism. Because in their painting have the characteristic in which color of paint has an almost endless variety of tones. As the likes of Eugene Delacroix who painted Shakespearean tragedy as one of his celebrated themes by exercising romantic topics, literary influences, theatricality, exaggeration, and dynamism. Most of his paintings, with his paintings based on the Hindu mythology and Punjabi folklore, also carried these elements as a Romantic painter. His landscape painting “the storm” ‘potato harvest’’ shows that Allaḥ Bakhsh is concerned about the horizon line of his landscape. These are implied lines, those that are not actually drawn but are instead implied by the brushstrokes around it. Particularly oils are thicker and the way in which they're applied on the canvas or board can give the work more depth because of the texture. Every piece of his artwork includes the element of shape, which ties into line and space.

In painting “moonlight meeting” he trains himself to observe the shapes in everything. By breaking down the basic shapes of a subject, he creates an accurate representation of the use of space in painting. The moon behind the figures represents the understating of shapes its look like 3D and it’s the great piece of composition having, Unity, balance, movement, rhythm, focus, contrast, pattern, and proportion. Each plays an important role in his every painting, which is why artist focus so much of their time on composition.

Symbolism in Paintings

The times when Allaḥ Bakhsh lived and worked were times of social and political changes as well as of new value systems. Newer standards in art and literature were being created. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh also have symbolism in his paintings. The hazy atmosphere symbolizes the polluted ambience of city shimmering black of the buffalos and crows as symbols of human association with nature. The usage of specific objects like pitcher in Sohni mahiwal depicts the story line of that tale in which sohni drowned in river because she was tried to swim over unprepared pitcher

Uncollectable /bad Aims of Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh Work

In his urge to learn the non-traditional modern style of painting, Ustad derivative many works of the Western masters and tried out his own color palette and local restricted themes. In his early executions of painting, seems a poor replica of the European masterpieces. However, with the passage of time and maturity of skill, the artist evolved his technique and perception of the subject up to a level that is today known as the Allaḥ Bakhsh style.

In the early period, one can feel the mishandling of disproportionate figures, and find faults with the anatomy of the human body where the painter appears more obsessive with the depiction of folktales like Hīr Ranj͟ha and Sohni Mahiwal or the village girls gathered to fetch water on and around a well. The drawbacks diminished completely when he painted the masterpiece of his life Talism-i-Hoshruba (mind-bending magic), based on the well-known fables of the Persian epic literature.

Good points

He came out from his naturalistically multicolored landscapes of the Punjab plain locality to the stony surface and up righted skyline of the mountains his style that has remained almost incomparable. in this day and age he is considered as the legendary pioneer painter regarding modern landscape and figurative painting in Pakistan.

Influence

‘Hir Ranjha’, ‘Sohni Mahewal’ are some of his paintings in the theatrical vein. It’s interesting that most of influences are attributed to his theatre company employment days. Critics and others tend to overlook the fact that he did not go through a regular/formal education system. Whatever influences are there, these have come through his life experiences. Painting theatre backdrops on a regular basis provided him with ample and varied opportunities to understand, design, and create compositions that were to give way to his innovative viewpoints and vantage points in his rural landscapes.

Achievements

He was awarded with countless prizes and achievements

• From a very young age Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh started exhibiting his works. He was awarded 1st prize in painting in a competition held in Bombay.
• He was also awarded Presidents medal for Pride of Performance.
• In 1979, through RCD’s programmed, the government of Iran reproduced one of his paintings on a postage stamp.

Thematically, Allaḥ Bakhsh was very much inspired by his own surroundings but in his style of painting landscapes he was deeply influenced by the western classical paintings. The reason could be strong hold of British Empire ruling united India. Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh taught free to his students which include Pakistani as well as Foreigners, some of them are today considered prominent artists. . His paintings are preserved by collector’s world over and are considered treasure.

• The National Art Gallery has a representative collection of his paintings, which remains on display for public viewing. He left behind amongst many valuables, his studio where he used to spend most of his time. The same has been converted into an academy “Allaḥ Bakhsh Academy” which is a learning ground for those who wants to excel in this great master’s style.

To commemorate the works of renowned painters of Pakistan, Pakistan Post Office issued one commemorative postage stamp of one Rupee denomination on December 24, 1991.

Conclusion

Through this study of Ustad Allaḥ Bakhsh, the aim is not to re-interpret the meaning and meaningfulness of his paintings or a re-appraisal of his technique it is to introduce him as a context to what the art world and art community of Pakistan has achieved. His is art a cushion between ‘high’ and ‘low’, ‘kitsch’ and ‘modern’, ‘popular’ and ‘elite’. Art and its perception in different eras has been fluid and continue to be so. There can be no final decision. His art changed, transformed, and matured with his life’s experiences or advancement. His life and work were not two entities but one, informing each other. His art should be studied as a prism or as a lens guided towards an understanding of the times that he lived and worked in. Art and artist eventually must become documentation. His keen interest in western painting built stamina of preciseness, perspective, and proportion. Consideration of realism and work in oil on large scale canvases is the technique which travels from west through these artists in subcontinent.

References

1. ‘The Ustad of Ustaads’ dawn news https://www. dawn. com/news/1195894 (access July 28, 2019)
2. Punjab paintings, By R. P. Srivastava, https://books. google. com. pk/ (acess July 20, 2019)