By Mushtaque B Barq
The brush renderings of Javid Iqbal are aesthetically pleasing. The combination of brush and knife is a powerful depiction of the artist’s mental state as he transforms Mystic lyrical diction through colours into abstract paintings. For connecting the mystical components of our indigenous culture with the hues and tints formed and crafted on the mixing palette, he merits a raised voice. By employing the language of colour to translate mystic and commonplace symbols, he was able to interpret Kashmiri poetry. We’ve never seen something like the gnosis on the canvas before. Javid Iqbal is a freelance artist from Sopore, Baramullah. In 2020, he is credited with mounting his solo exhibition of water colour paintings, Kasheer in 2020 and before it his theme Voice of Colours was displayed in 2009. He has actively involved in promoting his art from 2009 and has attended number of art camps organized by MSCBMCT, MSVD, CCRT, AKASHAYA KALAYATRA, HBAV, JKCC and AIFCS. Javid Iqbal‘s 30 art pieces were showcased at the newly established art gallery at the old secretariat (Old Assembly building) for three days. The quietness in the art gallery all of a sudden turned into a vibrant echo amidst the slow running Jhelum in the background of the gallery where verses had taken a new look. The ailing Jhelum and the ignored wooden walls were narrating the tale of their own woes, but the canvases of Javid Iqbal’s had lulled the agonised air with his ‘underpainting’, ‘dry brushing’, ‘sgraffitos’, ‘glazing’, ‘gesturals’, ‘stippling’, ‘pouring’, ‘splattering’, ‘dabbling’ and what Maya, the goddess of art, had infused in the nerves of the artist.
By using his brush strokes in a distinctive way to support the grandeur of mystic verses, Javid Iqbal has set his own mission to carry on the canvas of Kashmir. He is a brilliant artist abetted with seriousness and sincerity. This contribution is so original and unique that it explains why our folk singers have been singing these mystic verses for so long, but he has given them a fresh interpretation for art lovers. One is either drawn into the artist’s elaborate brush interpretations when looking at these canvases, or is forced to read the poems again in order to understand them via the artist’s lens. He has used a number of formidable symbols, much like the bards of old used, for his research and has succeeded in creating a connection between written language and abstract transcriptions. He has taken a straw from the court of Lal Ded and dipped it in the pool of Shrukhs of Sheik-ul-alam to look down into the Shams Faqir’s valley, where he has discovered a symbolic lamp to help him find a route into the ravines that lead to Sochkral’s perplexing echoes. By sweeping his brush over the nonfigurative concepts to correlate Rahim Sahab’s powerful gnosis to enjoying the very intense musical musings of Rahman Dar, his brush has translated Wahab Khar’s enigmatic poetry. Habba Khatton’s agonising lines have found a fitting tint in Nyam Sahab’s navigational storyline of gnosis. Mehmood Ghami’s high-pitched lyrics were cut gracefully through by his soulful knife, revealing Rasool Mir’s romanticism. The meadows of Dinna Nath Nadim and Amin Kamil have been traversed by Ahad Zargar’s golden semee and Samad Mir’s sweet gushing poetry textured by the Melrose’s mirth of Mehjoor and ravished by Rahi’s rhyming renderings. While bearing in mind the contemporary needs of aspiring artists, he attempted to forge a hitherto unheard-of relationship between our traditional bards and contemporary poets. Because beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, his colours have enabled metaphors to synchronise with the viewer’s perception of them. In painting, the development of specific aesthetic qualities in a two-dimensional visual language is linked with the communication of thoughts and feelings. On a flat surface, the shapes, lines, colours, tones, and textures of this language are used in a variety of ways to evoke feelings of volume, space, movement, and light. These components are arranged into expressive patterns to depict actual or imaginary phenomena, to interpret a story’s topic, or to forge completely abstract visual connections.
The majority of the paintings in the series are lavishly decorated with the most striking black oil paints, capable of putting a gnostic excursion on the cloth. His works are poetical in texture, for they entice the beholder like a melodious verse of the bard amidst rich musical composition, making it a compact capsule of aesthetic enactment as Paul Klee says, “colour is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” Javid has tried to decode the complicated communiqué of the mystically assisted lyrical verses at a personal level. His abstractions appear to be an idiom connecting our young artist with legendary artists who use different mediums of expression. He has initiated a discourse that emotions can be put on clothes using shades and hues, textures and strokes. If at all, one has to read the subjectivity of our traditional poetry, one has to take Javid’s work into consideration. His brush has given a new language to poetry that has the scope to move on to lure the next generation down the line. Javid’s impact may find a new group of artists to carry forward this art, which in turn can not only preserve our art but find a place in the galleries of the world to compete with the rest of the best works. “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
Leonardo da Vinci.
Javid Iqbal has won State Annual Art Awards in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2016 conducted by J & K Academy of Art Culture and Languages besides Award of honour by Bazm-i- Adab.
Mushtaq B.Barq is a Columnist, Poet and Fiction Writer. He is the author of “Feeble prisoner, “ Wings of Love” and many translation works are credited to the author like “ Verses Of Wahab
