ISLAMABAD: Satrang Gallery hosted a solo show of new works by Ghulam Hussein, titled ‘Woven Narratives: Dialogue with Piet Mondrian’.

The exhibition was inaugurated by UK High Commissioner Philip Barton.

Ghulam Hussein is a miniaturist and weaver, and has combined both into beautiful designs and patterns. In this exhibition, Hussein carries out a dialogue with Piet Mondrian, a grand master of non-representational art, nearly a hundred years after Mondrian explained ‘neo-plasticism’, his unique painting style.

He has created intricate, hand woven tapestries inspired by, and overlaying, Piet Mondrian’s paintings in such a way that one can see Mondrian’s paintings through the woven wasli.

Talking about his early influences, Mr Hussein said: “All the drawings I made in my notebooks as a child show my interest in basic shapes and horizontal and vertical lines.”

About his new work Mr Hussein said: “These pieces have evolved from my interaction with the works of Piet Mondrian when I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York and fell in love with his paintings. His use of basic geometric patterns struck a chord with me because when I weave, the same shapes as those in Mondrian’s works are created.”

The UK high commissioner said he felt privileged to be at the exhibition.

“It is a fantastic idea to bring together the traditional Sindhi and Hyderabadi techniques with modern art. It is both appealing and intriguing.”

The director of Satrang, Asma Rashid Khan, said: “Hussein’s work pays homage to an age old craft and shows the viewer the benefits of combining separate schools of thought, traditions and philosophies to form a new, mutually favourable fusion.”

The curator of the exhibition, Zahra Khan, thought the pieces in the exhibition could be deceptive: “These tapestries appear deceptively white with occasional vertical and horizontal black lines at first glance. They reveal patterns and blocks of color when seen from an angle.”

Art critic Aasim Akhtar applauded the new pieces and said, “When you look at them from up close, you can see the laborious, painstaking effort that has gone into their creation. I think the reason why Ghulam Hussein is drawn to Mondrian is because he works in straight lines. Mondrian worked on a grid and the grid translated well into Hussein’s scheme of things because he too, weaves on a grid.”

He added, “Some of the cities Mondrian drew were constructed on a grid. Hussein has depicted the same vagaries of space and time through curves and cuts within his tapestries.”

A guest at the exhibition, Ayesha Mustafa, who was wearing a Mondrian-inspired jacket said, “I am intrigued by the woven media, it is paper but doesn’t look like paper. The colors on the edges create a three dimensional silhouette which is fascinating.”

Where Mondrian is known for his use of only the three primary colors coupled with thick, black lines; Hussein’s response to him is monochromatic.

The dialogue, however, continues as Mondrian inspires an artist a century later to go a step beyond.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2015

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