ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA (1928-1985)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA (1928-1985)

Untitled (Composition)

Details
ANWAR JALAL SHEMZA (1928-1985)
Untitled (Composition)
oil on canvas laid on board
19 ¾ x 15 7/8 in. (50.2 x 40.3 cm.)
Provenance
Gifted by the artist, 1959
Private Collection, UK
Sotheby's New York, 18 September 2008, lot 29
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Damian Vesey
Damian Vesey

Lot Essay

Untitled (Composition) is a seminal example of Anwar Jelal Shemza’s series of paintings composed almost entirely of visual structures using the letters B, D and perhaps C. The repetition of the letters adds a meditative character to the work.
“His art is more than a fusion of styles based upon a personal crisis. Rather, the artist picked elements from his own culture and European culture where they best suited his artistic aims […] Shemza also brought to these works an Islamic mystical interest in the use of geometric relationships to express the nature of the universe.” (Anwar Shemza, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham, 1997, p. 9)
The influence of Paul Klee’s compositions inspired by alphabets and Piet Mondrian’s approach towards destructive elements in art are clear in the present work. Shemza based his paintings on simplified forms drawn from three dimensional solid figures and Mughal architecture, and motifs found in intricately woven patterns of oriental rugs and calligraphy. Shemza was a creative polymath; in addition to his art, he published several Urdu novels such as Sotey Jagtey as well as collections of poetry such as Kissa Kahani and wrote a number of plays, which were performed on Radio Pakistan in the 1950s.

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