Art / Fashion
 
Amalgam of modern and traditional symbolism
Visits 387
February 03, 2012
Modern art includes artistic works in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation. Modern artists experimented with new ways of seeing things and introducing fresh ideas. The multi-coloured, expressive landscapes and mainly figurative paintings by young artist Laiba Baig fall into this category. The amalgam of modern and traditional symbolism results in beautiful creative artworks.

Her artistic production reflects her love for traditional values. Her paintings reveal a world of combination of modernism and traditionalism – physically and emotionally.

I am observing and writing about art for quite some time and during this period I have came across many senior and junior artists. Among junior artists I observe Laiba Baig as a young talented artist while viewing her paintings on and off in different exhibitions I find her artworks very appealing. While visiting Liaba’s studio I was astonished to see such a nice work at very young age. It was a surprise for me that she has not acquired any art education from any institution and not even learned art from any senior artist. It is indeed a God gifted talent as she paints herself without any guidelines from a senior artist or teacher. A self taught artist she admire the artworks of senior artists Saeed Akhtar and Jamil Naqsh.

While going through her artworks I saw a combination of modernism and traditionalism and after having a conversation with her about her work I am of the view that she paints herself as she believes in living a modern life without leaving traditional values, and her personality also reflects it.

Her paintings are pleasant and enjoyable as they portray social and moral values of our society. She paints modern figures with traditional touch. She targets the consciousness that made people select the style of their living and the resultant behavioral changes.

Her talent for painting was recognized by her mother when she was just a kid since than she encouraged her and helped Laiba honing her skills in painting. She participated in painting and poster competitions in school and win prizes.

Her paintings convey her feelings that emerge from within. The basic subject of her artworks is women, which holds both traditional and modern values. She paints elongated faces, big bright eyes and heavy jewellery. Soft and enlightened female faces unveil emotional and intellectual dilemmas of women between two cultures. She gives eyes and lips more prominence in her paintings and reveals all the emotions through them. She incorporates heavy jewellery to represent our traditional culture and values like women of Thar who wears big ornaments which has became their traditional symbol. She wants to convey a message that modernism can not wipe out the traditional values from a culture. We must not forget our roots our traditions and culture while acquiring modernism. She wants to preserve the individuality of each era may it be traditionalism or modernism. She sees latest styles, tastes, attitudes and practices as an addition to our existing values not ones that replace our traditional values.

The intense warm colours of the figures against the red hot and dark black backgrounds and the rhythmical succession of the female faces convey the feelings of emotional attachment to the roots. By the introduction of different textures, surfaces, and elements along with various geometric shapes she enhances the moral value of her paintings.

She creates a saturation and profusion of colour, that is lavish and over powering. She play with colours and a symphony of blues, greens, yellow, reds, purple and whites can be felt in her paintings with various colour schemes. Viewers love the sensuous paintings by Laiba. She uses the art of painting to create awareness among the masses.

She has a good sense of composition and concentrate on her work. The serious theme of her artworks shows how much she is involved with the society. Her work depicts how she feels about the present situation.

She wants traditional values to stay alive along with modern way of life. “We must not forget who we are. It is good to adopt modern values but we should also experience our traditional ways of living and by combining both we will not loose our roots and at the same time enjoy a life compatible to the new world,” she said

She pursues this logic in her artworks. She deals with both ways of life in her paintings but at the same time aims to distinguish both styles in one painting. Her paintings portray combination of modernism and traditionalism but do not defuse both as they had their own identity. She avoids blending modernism and traditionalism instead she shares them in one place on her canvas. Our traditional values and culture is as beautiful as any modern society.

In other words she portrays the coexistence of modern and tradition times. She desired to see both exists together at the same time and in the same place, occupy the same place in a peaceful way and live together peacefully.

She is not an expressive person therefore she speaks through colours and female figures in her paintings. While explaining her experience of painting she said, “I enjoy painting a lot but can do painting only when I am in a mood of doing so.”

Her colour sense, division of spaces, and compositions, all together creates her artworks which bring a breath of fresh air to the art scene of Karachi. If this young and emerging artist pursues her work with same devotion and commitment there will be no obstacle for her to become a great artist in future.

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