Mansoor Rahi (Pakistani, B.1939) Untitled

Mansoor Rahi (Pakistani, B.1939)
Untitled
signed 'Rahi 79' lower right
oil on board, framed
38.8 x 28.8cm (15 1/4 x 11 5/16in).
Provenance
Property from a private collection, Pakistan.
Acquired in 2012.

Rahi was a student of Zainul Abedin and the works he produced in the early part of his career were directly influenced by Abedin. The works preceding 1968 consisted of romanticised village scenes, pedestrian portraits, and landscapes. What differentiated him from Abedin however was his painting style, which was deeply inspired by the father of Cubism, Pablo Picasso. Guernica profoundly impacted Rahi, and the works produced after 1968 were an amalgamation of the social conscience that he had inherited from Abedin, and his own interpretation of Cubism.

The present work dating from 1979 includes all the hallmarks of Rahi's works. We can see intricate clusters of anatomical imagery. The cluster in the upper right for example appears to be a hand with its various fingers. The layering of these conglomerations adds volume to the works, and the colours used are akin to straw and cement and are perhaps a homage to the works he produced in these mediums, Distortion and Intervention.