Jimmy Engineer, a Karachi-based artist, has launched prints of his selected paintings. The set includes about two dozen prints of his selected work.
The prints include Jimmy Engineer’s artistic interpretation of great thinker and poet Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s epic poem “Javed Nama”.
Commenting on the endeavour, he said, “By painting this major work I have paid my tribute to Allama Muhammad Iqbal, who in his lifetime had desired that some artist should interpret the Javed Nama verses on canvas.”
Jimmy Engineer will arrive in Lahore on April 21 to tell the media and art enthusiasts about the prints. He is likely to finalise arrangements for a Tableau Competition for physically-challenged children at the Alhamra Art Centre on April 24.
His work included historical, philosophical, landscapes, moods, seascapes, architectural and cultural paintings. They also included abstract art, figures work, calligraphic paintings addressing the theme of war and terrorism.
The prints were selected by Jimmy Engineer himself. They have been printed on art paper by Khadim Ali Shah Bokhari of the KASB Group of Industries in order to pay tribute to the artist for his contribution for betterment of the society. Jimmy Engineer had been painting a series of medium and large-sized paintings highlighting architectural composition of Pakistan. About 100 paintings will be displayed at a huge exhibition, which the artist plans to hold in next year in the federal and provincial capitals. He also intends to project Pakistan’s architectural grandeur and beauty across the world.
The selected work included prints of his famous and popular series of historical paintings which depict the struggle and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in the creation of Pakistan.
Engineer has been donating backlighted transparency prints of the Pakistan Movement paintings to several organisations and institutions throughout the country during the last couple of years. He said, “I want to educate the young people about the struggle their forefathers made in securing a separate homeland under the leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah.”
Engineer has sent one of his famous Pakistan Movement paintings for display at the National Art Gallery of the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad.
Jimmy Engineer plans to distribute sets of his selected paintings in foreign countries also in order to present the soft and moderate image of Pakistan.
The artist was born to a Parsi family in Loralai, Balochistan, in August 1954. He got his education in Lahore and was then married and settled in Karachi. The artist has also spent some years in Peshawar with his father and other family members.
The Tableau Competition is likely to be arranged under the banner of Jimmy Engineer’s Awareness, Fun and Food Programme for the Special Children.
Original article here