Anwar Jalal Shemza
Letter, 1976
Ink on paper on mountboard
Window: 29.5 x 21 cm
11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in
Framed: 44 x 35.6 x 3.7 cm
17 3/8 x 14 1/8 x 1 1/2 in
11 5/8 x 8 1/4 in
Framed: 44 x 35.6 x 3.7 cm
17 3/8 x 14 1/8 x 1 1/2 in
Anwar Jalal Shemza (b.1928 – d.1985 Stafford, UK) was born in Simla, India, to Kashmiri and Punjabi parents. He attended The Mayo School of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in...
Anwar Jalal Shemza (b.1928 – d.1985 Stafford, UK) was born in Simla, India, to Kashmiri and Punjabi parents. He attended The Mayo School of Art in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in 1947. As a young artist and writer, he was an active participant in Urdu literary circles; publishing multiple novels and poems, performing radio plays, and editing journals. In 1952, he co-founded the Lahore Art Circle - a group of young artists interested in modernism and abstraction, rebelling against the uniform socialist realist style espoused by some progressives.
In 1956, already an established artist in Pakistan, he relocated to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. This move marked a significant change in the artist’s life and practice. While studying he was astonished to hear one of his lecturers, famed art historian E.H. Gombrich, characterise Islamic art as purely functional. This was a pivotal moment, leading Shemza to abandon previous work and embark on a journey to create a dramatically different style and visual language. He drew on an array of references, from carpet patterns and calligraphic forms to the environments around him: Mughal architecture from Lahore, Pakistan and the rural landscapes of Stafford, England.
Letter (1976) is exemplary of an unwavering commitment to form and process – repeatedly breaking down the structure of shapes to come to a resolved understanding. Parallels can be drawn between a looping structure of language found in his fictional writing and the arrangements he developed through painting. In his compositions, layered elements are distilled into an intensive exploration of geometric abstraction and pattern, built up mostly using just two simple forms: the square and the circle. Through extensive experimentation, he cultivated an outstanding formalist lexis. Shemza’s calligraphic abstraction is universalising - unmistakably repeating the shape of the Roman letters B and D with the fluid gesture of Arabic lettering, the artist states ‘my paintings are not only to look at but are also writings to be read.’ This is demonstrated in Letter, in which symbols insinuate alphabetic characters and the horizontal structure suggests lines on a page. This horizontal structure is also reminiscent of a landscape as the sections recede into the distance. This simple pictorial device repeats and splits up the picture plane.
In 1956, already an established artist in Pakistan, he relocated to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. This move marked a significant change in the artist’s life and practice. While studying he was astonished to hear one of his lecturers, famed art historian E.H. Gombrich, characterise Islamic art as purely functional. This was a pivotal moment, leading Shemza to abandon previous work and embark on a journey to create a dramatically different style and visual language. He drew on an array of references, from carpet patterns and calligraphic forms to the environments around him: Mughal architecture from Lahore, Pakistan and the rural landscapes of Stafford, England.
Letter (1976) is exemplary of an unwavering commitment to form and process – repeatedly breaking down the structure of shapes to come to a resolved understanding. Parallels can be drawn between a looping structure of language found in his fictional writing and the arrangements he developed through painting. In his compositions, layered elements are distilled into an intensive exploration of geometric abstraction and pattern, built up mostly using just two simple forms: the square and the circle. Through extensive experimentation, he cultivated an outstanding formalist lexis. Shemza’s calligraphic abstraction is universalising - unmistakably repeating the shape of the Roman letters B and D with the fluid gesture of Arabic lettering, the artist states ‘my paintings are not only to look at but are also writings to be read.’ This is demonstrated in Letter, in which symbols insinuate alphabetic characters and the horizontal structure suggests lines on a page. This horizontal structure is also reminiscent of a landscape as the sections recede into the distance. This simple pictorial device repeats and splits up the picture plane.