Jamil Naqsh
Untitled (Woman with Pigeon), 1974
Oil on canvas
106.5 x 76 cm
41 7/8 x 29 7/8 in
41 7/8 x 29 7/8 in
Signed and dated 'jamil Naqsh/ 1974 Pakistan' lower right
Further images
A critic once commented that Naqsh’s works; “are reminiscent of the care that a painter of miniatures on all details must use. Every blade of grass, every strand of hair...
A critic once commented that Naqsh’s works; “are reminiscent of the care that a painter of miniatures on all details must use. Every blade of grass, every strand of hair in its place, and justified. Jamil Naqsh placed every grain of pigment as if it were precious metal or a precious stone.”
It has been noted that Ali Imam’s work from the early 1970s was influential on Naqsh’s paintings from the mid-19070s. The building of the image using small brushwork is something that the two artists have in common from this period.
In this painting, Naqsh has build the image using subtle artistic devices; the horizontal line bisecting the work gives depth and grounds the composition. The balance of the composition is extremely considered and harmonious. Here and there across the canvas the dark red/brown paint surface is allowed to come to the fore, lending the painting a sculptural quality, enhanced by the totemic nature of the seated figure, whose gaze stares just over the viewer’s shoulder.
It has been noted that Ali Imam’s work from the early 1970s was influential on Naqsh’s paintings from the mid-19070s. The building of the image using small brushwork is something that the two artists have in common from this period.
In this painting, Naqsh has build the image using subtle artistic devices; the horizontal line bisecting the work gives depth and grounds the composition. The balance of the composition is extremely considered and harmonious. Here and there across the canvas the dark red/brown paint surface is allowed to come to the fore, lending the painting a sculptural quality, enhanced by the totemic nature of the seated figure, whose gaze stares just over the viewer’s shoulder.
Provenance
Indus Gallery, Karachi;
Thomas and Barbara Dimmock, UK, acquired in Pakistan in the mid-1970s;
Thence by descent
Thomas Dimmock worked as an engineer in Pakistan in the 1970s/early 1980s. He and his wife acquired Woman with Pigeon and The Ghee Maker from Ali Imam’s Indus Gallery in the late 1970s, along with a handful of other works by Pakistani contemporary painters. They left Pakistan in the early 1980s, relocating to Holland, before settling in the UK.
