Thesis Landscapes Introduction:

Inspiration can be passed from person to person and travel around the world and at times can have a world-changing effect. The same way I have been inspired by Van Gogh. His work really impressed me.

Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. The word landscape is from the Dutch, landscape originally meaning a patch of cultivated ground, and then an image. The word entered the English language at the start of the 17th century, purely as a term for works of art; it was not used to describe real vistas before 1725. A portion of land or territory which the eye can comprehend in a single view, including all the objects it contains; A picture representing a scene by land or sea, actual or fancied, the chief subject being the general aspect of nature, as fields, hills, forests, water. ... History: The earliest forms of art around the world depict little that could really be called landscape, although ground-lines and sometimes indications of mountains, trees or other natural features are included. The earliest "pure landscapes" with no human figures are frescos from Minoan Greece of around 1500 BCE. For a coherent depiction of a whole landscape, some

rough system of perspective, or scaling for distance, is needed, and this seems from literary evidence to have first been developed in Ancient Greece in the Hellenistic period, although no large-scale examples survive. The Chinese ink painting tradition of shan shui ("mountain-water"), or "pure" landscape, in which the only sign of human life is usually a sage, or a glimpse of his hut, uses sophisticated landscape backgrounds to figure subjects, and landscape art of this period retains a classic and much-imitated status within the Chinese tradition. A major contrast between landscape painting in the West and East Asia has been that while in the West until the 19th century it occupied a low position in the accepted hierarchy of genres, in East Asia the classic Chinese mountain-water ink painting was the most prestigious form of visual art. In the West this was history painting, but in East Asia it was the imaginary landscape, whose most famous practitioners were, at least in theory, amateur literati, including several Emperors of both China and Japan. They were often also poets whose lines and images illustrated each other.[7] However in the West, history painting came to require an extensive landscape background where appropriate, so the theory did not entirely work against the development of landscape painting for several centuries landscapes were regularly promoted to the status of history painting by the addition of small figures to make a narrative scene, typically religious or mythological. History of Landscape Art In West:

In early Western medieval art interest in landscape disappears almost entirely, kept alive only in copies of Late Antique works such as the Utrecht Psalter; the last reworking of this source, in an early Gothic version, reduces the previously extensive landscapes to a few trees filling gaps in the composition, with no sense of overall space.[8] A revival in interest in nature initially mainly manifested itself in depictions of small gardens such as the Hortus Conclusus or those in millefleur tapestries. The frescos of figures at work or play in front of a background of dense trees in the Palace of the Popes, Avignon are probably a unique survival of what was a common subject. During the 14th century Giotto di Bondone and his followers began to acknowledge nature in their work, increasingly introducing elements of the landscape as the background setting for the action of the figures in their paintings. The artist known as "Hand G", probably one of the Van Eyck brothers, was especially successful in reproducing effects of light and in a natural-seeming progression from the foreground to the distant view.[12] Landscape backgrounds for various types of painting became increasingly prominent and skilful during the century. The period around the end of the 15th century saw pure landscape drawings and watercolours from Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Drer, Fra Bartolomeo and others, but pure landscape subjects in painting and printmaking, still small, were first produced by Albrecht Altdorfer and others of the German Danube School in the early 16th century.[14] At the same time Joachim Patinir in the Netherlands developed a style of panoramic landscapes

with a high aerial viewpoint that remained influential for a century, being used, for example, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. The Italian development of a thorough system of graphical perspective was now known all over Europe, which allowed large and complex views to be painted very effectively. Landscapes were idealized, mostly reflecting a pastoral ideal drawn from classical poetry which was first fully expressed by Giorgione and the young Titian. Italian and French landscape artists most often wanted to keep their classification within the hierarchy of genres as history painting by including small figures to represent a scene from classical mythology or the Bible. Salvator Rosa gave picturesque excitement to his landscapes by showing wilder Southern Italian country, often populated by banditi.[17] The Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century saw the dramatic growth of landscape painting, in which many artists specialized, and the development of extremely subtle realist techniques for depicting light and weather. There are different styles and periods, and sub-genres of marine and animal painting, as well as a distinct style of Italianate landscape. Most Dutch landscapes were relatively small, but landscapes in Flemish Baroque painting, still usually peopled, were often very large, above all in the series of works that Peter Paul Rubens painted for his own houses. The popularity of landscapes in the Netherlands was in part a reflection of the virtual disappearance of religious painting in a

Calvinist society, and the decline of religious painting in the 18th and 19th centuries all over Europe combined with Romanticism to give landscapes a much greater and more prestigious place in 19th-century art than they had assumed before. In England, landscapes had initially been mostly backgrounds to portraits, typically suggesting the parks or estates of a landowner, though mostly painted in London by an artist who had never visited his sitter's rolling acres; the English tradition was founded by Anthony van Dyck and other mostly Flemish artists working in England. In the 18th century, watercolour painting, mostly of landscapes, became an English speciality, with both a buoyant market for professional works, and a large number of amateur painters. By the beginning of the 19th century the English artists with the highest modern reputations were mostly dedicated landscapists, showing the wide range of Romantic interpretations of the English landscape found in the works of John Constable, J.M.W. Turner and Samuel Palmer. French painters were slower to develop landscape painting, but from about the 1830s Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and other painters in the Barbizon School established a French landscape tradition that would become the most influential in Europe for a century, with the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists for the first time making landscape painting the main source of general stylistic innovation across all types of painting. In Europe, as John Ruskin said,[24] and Sir Kenneth Clark confirmed, landscape painting was the "chief artistic creation of the nineteenth century", and "the dominant art", with the

result that in the following period people were "apt to assume that the appreciation of natural beauty and the painting of landscape is a normal and enduring part of our spiritual activity"[25] In Clark's analysis, underlying European ways to convert the complexity of landscape to an idea were four fundamental approaches: the acceptance of descriptive symbols, a curiosity about the facts of nature, the creation of fantasy to allay deep-rooted fears of nature, and the belief in a Golden Age of harmony and order, which might be retrieved. Khalid Iqbal: Prof Khalid Iqbal is a legend in his lifetime. He has brought realism to painting with impressionistic treatment of colour and light, thus creating a veritable atmosphere in his landscapes. The works exude involvement and truthfulness. A feeling of space and his sensitivity to light in its impingement on the open plains, the foliage or on the rough foreground make the paintings realistic as they are. The so near-real life depiction of light makes one conscious of the season in which a painting is set. So realistic are Iqbal s canvases that one can even sense the temperature at which the canvas was painted on the given day. His admission to the Slade School of Art is another extraordinary tale. In 1949, after doing his B.A., Iqbal started to teach art at Aitcheson College, Lahore. During this period he heard of the Slade s reputation and stature in the world of art. This inspired in him a desire to seek further education there. Consequently he wrote a plain and simple letter to the

principal, enclosing a small watercolour done by him, stating in all humility that he had an irrepressible passion for painting; but, as he was thousands of miles away, he was hardly in position to sit for an admission test. Amongst Pakistani painters Ustad Allah Bakhsh followed the traditions of the English painters. Although he was a landscape painter his works gave prominence to Punjabi folk themes and the rural culture. Indeed the imaginative characters of Ustad Allah Baksh got spawned in his studio. Against this Iqbal takes the trouble of proceeding physically to the locale which he wishes to paint. This is so because he wants show nature in its magical realism. Although his paintings are true delights of nature, quite a few especially those of industrial suburbs contain a certain touch of melancholy where some of his earnest and sombre temperament quietly seeps into his landscapes. Many of Iqbal s paintings have the onlooker contemplate the stillness of a purely visual world from which all human activity has been banished. His landscapes rarely contain human figures. The meticulously painstaking, yet creative, technique leaves the viewer possessed; as if in a trance, enjoying and totally lost, listening to an emotive movement of a great symphony. Iqbal has undertaken painting in almost all seasons to depict prevailing light effects. Here and there one sees thrushes on barren land with noontime light giving a palpable sense of the heat under a hazy, dusty sky; and at time moisture-laden dark

clouds over still water, between green fields, give the sensation of wetness in the air as if it has rained only moments ago. His paintings of early morning mist cleaving to the shadows of distant trees give an all but sensed feeling of extreme cold. In one of his canvasses, green ivy is seen layering the surface of motionless water of a village pond; it appears as if Iqbal has brought the ivy from somewhere and studiously spread it on his picture. It unmistakably gives the beholder a sensuous feeling of softness. Iqbal says that no painting can be a facsimile of what it seeks to portray of the natural environ. Iqbal is a very private individual in the true sense of the word and an epitome of humility. Perhaps drowned in the world of art he has forgotten his own self because of his commitment to art which is complete. Many of Iqbal s paintings have the onlooker contemplate the stillness of a purely visual world from which all human activity has been banished.

Ustad Allah Bux: Allah Bux was one of the prominent artists of pre-partition. He was born in Wazirabad in 1885. He learned at the age five from Master Abdulla, a Mughal miniature artist of Lahore, by the age fourteen Bux had become an accomplished signboard painter. He worked as a carriage painter for Mughalpura Railway and as

a scene painter for Agha Hasher Kashmiri's theatrical company. In 1914 he went to Bombay, where he was employed as a photographer, retouch artist and portrait and landscape painter at the Bombay Art Studio. After returning to Lahore in 1919, he became a fine art painter who supported himself as a commercial artist. He painted popular scenes of Hindu Mythology. Allah Bux s beautiful work caught the eye of the maharajah of Patiala and in 1937, he lived and worked in Patiala then he moved to Lahore where he remained rest of his life after partition he portray the landscape of the Punjab, he painted the villages, and the rural festivals, crowded scenes with an amazing diversity of people, each face and expression unique. He maintained his own distinctive, romantic style, and painted Pakistan folk stories such as Heer Ranjha ,Sohni Mahiwal and different festivals and seasons. His work gained a lot of popularity and in great demand both at home and abroad. The National Art Gallery has a large number of beautiful artworks in different mediums. These are the legacy of nation. GHULAM MUSTAFA: Mustafa is acknowledged for his spontaneity and expertise in lifting whatever arrests his attention. His works of the old Lahore city vividly capture shifting light and shadows, the textures and patina left on alley walls by the passage of time and the hubbub of streets and the ding of everyday life. Mustafa has fondly painted his native city of Lahore and its many known sights but with unusual approach. Whether it is a

village landscape or a narrow street scene from his cityscapes, he takes the viewer to the extreme end of the panorama. His most fascinating canvases are the ones portraying dark alleys of old Lahore city. The viewer is not lost in congested dark lanes with old time habitats and a flavor of local culture; the viewer keeps moving towards the end following the light at the end. With the light effect, Mustafa highlights a certain aspect of the street, sometimes a balcony and some times it is a far flung building pointing to another area. He works elaborately in detail the ornamental designs of the balconies. This effort uplifts the scene. One sees electric wires and poles running haphazardly from one to the other side of the streets signifying that the area has accepted the comforts of new age technology. Skillfully he plays with light and shade to give life to his canvases. He does not ignore minor objects and works with detail; the detail of a street scene creates the true aura of a culture called Punjab. He rightly names his body of work on display at Ejaz galleries, Landscapes of Pakistan because these street scenes are shared by all the cities in the country. Conceptually speaking, the light at the end or on one of the sides of the narrow streets is like a message of hope for the viewers; but for the artist it is a matter of technique. Here the effect of unconscious forces cannot be ignored.

When the viewer enters the zone of Mustafa s landscapes in the open, a sense of relief is experienced in the openness of the land as well as the sky. The artist has not ignored the play of shadow even in open places. Lahore Fort I and II, which show

only a section of the fort, offer openness because the artist has narrowed the scope of shade covering only the faades of the building.

IQBAL HUSSAIN: Tell us what brought you to painting and how you started painting.

I started seriously quite late as part of my thesis at National College of Arts. In my childhood I was never interested in art .. "Bilkul" [absolutely], not at all . sitting outside growing up next to the Badshahi Mohalla, I was always into street sports,

gambling, bird fighting, dog fighting, selling cinema tickets in black. It s a long story.

I scraped through Matric [high school] in 3rd Division- barely by copying and had to take a few papers a second time. I planned to become a doctor. I tried three different schools and for being naughty I was thrown out before Matric from these schools. Although I was good in studies and went to Cathedral school, I got expelled for playing marbles. My aunt s daughter who really supported us was called Anwar. She was the central support and godmother of the family .later she also threw me out, and as a result I broke the glass windows of her house with a sling shot [gulail].

After Matric, I was not sure of what I wanted to do. In the evenings, I would often sit in the open with a very good friend of mine Amanat Ali [singer of "Insha Jee Utho" ]. The roofs of our present house were broken and fallen in. Wearing a dhoti, in the evening, this was around 1968, 1969, we used to sit on the charpaai [the local bed /hammock style] and he would bring the harmonium and try out some tunes. I tried to become an electrician, supervisor, and a line superintendent. At the time in those days my sister was in the "profession", she used to go to the bazaar, my mother use to go along with her. I was the only son. I would sit outside and late at night at 2 a.m., sometimes the customer used to come along with her also. These were

very disturbing times for me, I could not sleep; I would go outside and sleep on the footpath. My sister supported me. After Matric she tried to get me a job. Meanwhile Anwar died. Subsequently I tried getting jobs through various people, who would not recognize me when I went to their offices. I got a job at a gas /petrol station at Rs. 60 per month. Sometimes they did not pay. It was at this time that Raza came into this story; he was a very good friend of mine -and still is- at school. In those hard times I would cut his trousers and wear them at school. At that time I had started making pictures of film actors and actresses such as Waheeda Rehman, Dilip Kumar, Saira Bano. These would be passed around and people would say "great, bravo [wah jee wah]. Well done". Raza suggested I should try and get admission into the National School of Arts. This was 1970. So I went for the admission test. I had to sketch a flowerpot before me. I was selected. There was a test of English also, which I did not take - because I was not aware of it. Next day I went to the NCA again. In those days Shakir Ali [modernist school Pakistani architect /painter] was there as the head of the department, so too was Khaled Iqbal [a noted Pakistani impressionist painter of landscapes] There were about eight or nine people sitting there. I lied and told them that my mother was not well; hence I could not appear for the English test. One of them said, "Here, read the newspaper." I had been selected. I had no clue as to what was to be done there. I was the leading college toughie; I used to carry a gun along with a

dagger; this is how things used to be, you know, just to impress, you looked after the girls, but no one was impressed, [kissy ney ghas nahin dali], no one bothered. When I was in the 1st year of college, I was not serious; sometimes I would study; sometimes just fool around ; I used to fire guns and do different things to impress the girls but nobody was interested . I passed luckily. Then there was Bashir, who is the miniature guy, now head of the department. He was scared of me; he used to help me. I was very bad at calligraphy; he did calligraphy for me, sometimes he would design for me. He would come to my house to do all my homework at my place, because I was a toughie and I enjoyed all these things. Every morning I use to give him a hint about the homework; the only interest I had was in drawing. Then came the turning point. I passed marginally in the first year; the passing marks were 245 and I got 248. In the 2nd year I didn t know which subjects to choose; I asked everybody what subjects they were taking; one of my friends told me that he was taking Fine Arts. I asked him what is Fine Arts? He told me that it s about making pictures; so I said that I will also take Fine Arts; and this is how I got into the Fine Arts department. What was your thesis on? My thesis was on the red light area of Lahore [the courtesans quarter]. In between, I was painting my relatives, portraits, but these were really bad. I lost all those paintings but one, which is

a landscape I made in 1971. That is still lying around - I had gone to the Ravi to paint this. CONCLUSION: I think Landscape paintings need to be created from both scenery in the natural environment and our creative vision. It is impossible to enjoy a landscape without seeing it, or having seen it. The emotions, which landscape provokes in us, surface unpredictably. Analyze and summarize with critical eyes, and make the necessary adjustments. Decide whether the ink or color is enough, whether the result is the same as our vision; if not, we should complement and modify it. All in all, we must express the vision in your heart. We should distinguish between elements of primary and secondary importance, capture the character of the scenery and should not be a stickler for detail, though the subject must be clear in order to portray the vision in our heart. In landscape painting the thing that is important to artistic expression is landscape sense , a sense that makes us feel the weight of the mountain, feel the float of a cloud, feel the rhythmic reach of a tree and the hardness of a stone. I will try in these chapters to do a little more than mere visualization.