Untitled (Camels)

Ismail Gulgee is one of Pakistan's most renowned modernists and enjoyed great patronage and government support throughout a career which tragically ended with his untimely murder in 2007 at his home in Karachi. Gulgee is often associated with his later abstract calligraphic works; however after studying civil engineering at Columbia and then Harvard, Gulgee began his career as a naturalistic artist, becoming a national portrait painter of Pakistan in the 1950s. It was in this period that Gulgee was commissioned by King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan to travel to Kabul. Here Gulgee grew enamored with the region, often depicting pastoral and animal scenes. After attending an exhibition of the American abstract painter and muralist, Elaine Hamilton in Karachi in 1960, Gulgee began to experiment with a more dynamic and energetic use of form and color.

This monumental painting from 1968 uses an energetic and gestural application of vibrant colours and rich impastos to create a palpable radiant atmosphere that echoes orientalism in its in subject matter. "Each part of the canvas is painted with loving care, each brush-stroke is aware of itself, every impression is infused with light, which makes the picture surface vibrate with a transcendental glow. Gulgee, while painting, wants to carry the viewer along by appealing to his emotional and sensual faculties." (I. Hassan, Painting in Pakistan, Lahore, 1991, pp. 119-12). The man and boy in this painting appear as father and son, pausing on their travels as their camels share a tender moment appearing to kiss in the dusk light. The third camel and the father's smiling gaze invite us to join this happy caravan and rejoice in the symphony of color.