Mukhtar Kazi paints like he speaks; in a measured and calm tone, pausing and thinking before each sentence and with a depth and baritone that makes you hang on to every word.
Artist: Mukhtar Kazi |
I have been acquainted with Mukhtar’s work
for the last decade or so; since the time I bought my first work by him not
having known him or his oeuvre personally. I was simply attracted to the work
itself. There was a stillness yet a gentle vibration in the work that
captivates me even now after a decade and I continue to find layers, dualities
and depths that I was unaware of when I acquired it.
Being an architect, I am naturally drawn to
the forms that Mukhtar composes on the canvas. I can almost imagine him in the
process of painting, gently applying the brush to the canvas with the lightest
of touches and then building up the layers as he goes on, extracting a balance
between the different personalities and tones of the same color at times and
teasing out the various nuances of chiaroscuro to achieve depth and volume on a
simple two-dimensional canvas.
Recent Painting by Mukhtar Kazi |
His canvases draw you in and hold you in a
grip once you drop your guard and decide to enter them. Your eyes move
furtively across the canvas following the angled forms and sharp edges and then
turn when they encounter color which then pulls you further into the deep abyss
of its multifarious shades. There is no escape.
I believe Art should not only be about the “pretty
picture”.
Art is a medium of communication that needs
to have the capacity and the depth of character to make its viewer want to converse
with it and go back renewed.
And in Mukhtar Kazi, that medium has found a
sensitive and devoted messenger.
Architect.
October
21 2021
Press ReleaseFrom: 16th to 22nd November 2021
“Silent Forms”An Exhibition of Paintings by well-known artist Mukhtar Kazi
VENUE:
Jehangir Art Gallery
161-B, M.G. Road,
Kala Ghoda, Mumbai 400001
Timing: 11am to 7pm