Quddus Mirza is a Pakistani art critic, artist, and art educator based in Lahore. As an art critic, his writings have been published in national and international newspapers and magazines.(Fareeha Qayoom
Profile of Quddus Mirza on TKFR Art website
Published 7 July 2009, Retrieved 5 October 2020

Early life and career

Quddus Mirza was born in 1961. He graduated from

National College of Arts The National College of Arts (colloquially known as NCA) is a public university located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Overview National College of Arts - A Federal Chartered Institute is the oldest art school in Pakistan and the second oldest i ...

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city ...

in 1986 and completed his post-graduate work at the Royal College of Arts

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1991.Profile of Quddus Mirza on vaslart.org website
Retrieved 7 October 2020 He is known for his writings on Pakistani art and has developed an eye for art over the years. When asked to critique another artist's paintings or work on display at a gallery, he's very meticulous and spends at least ten minutes on each painting absorbing all the nuances. Later when he interviews the displaying artist, he is very tactful and respectful of the artist's sensibilities. He himself has a warm and relaxed attitude towards the artist and encourages him to open up and talk about his work. Quddus Mirza is a professor and the head of Fine Arts Department,

, Lahore, Pakistan in 2019.

Art style

Mirza’s own work deals with the issues of pictorial investigation. His paintings address the multiplicity of meaning by fusing the five senses of a viewer. He deliberately uses bright colors and paints with gestural and inlaid social and political intent. Mirza uses division of space and overlapping of brush strokes for effect. He paints basically images and ideas that deal with the political and social scene. Quddus Mirza describes what art is in an interview, "The process of creativity is not targeted at an audience. It's about self-expression. Van Goh's work may be appreciated today but what would he care? Creativity is very self-oriented process. It's a way of exploring yourself".

Writings

Trained as a visual artist, Mirza has been writing on Pakistani art for over a decade now in many major newspapers and art magazines of Pakistan. In his writings, Mirza analyzes the parallel between east and west. He has rejected the term Pakistani art. He said there is nothing that can be called Pakistani art; he says that more properly, such work should be called "art from Pakistan". His writings address the issues revolving around art and life. Being an art educator, Mirza also questions problems in art education, as well as the role of

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

and institutions shaping and reshaping Pakistani art. In his writings, he examines the conventional trends of art in Pakistan, especially those initiated by modern

miniaturist A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

s who transformed it for foreign

curators A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

due to the tastes of the art market in the West.Books by Quddus Mirza on goodreads.com website
Retrieved 6 October 2020

Exhibits

* Canvas Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2019

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mirza, Quddus Pakistani painters Living people Artists from Lahore Writers from Lahore 1961 births National College of Arts alumni Academic staff of the National College of Arts Pakistani contemporary artists Pakistani writers Pakistani art curators Pakistani artists