Bashir Mirza

(1941-2000)

Compromise 6

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, Germany.
Acquired from the Colour of East exhibition, Germany 1970;
Thence by descent.

Published
Colour of East catalogue, Pakistanische Maler, Galerie Christoph Durr, 1970.

BM possessed a remarkable ability to navigate the intersection between abstraction and figuration throughout his career. 'In 1965, BM opened 'The Gallery,' a centre for artists and art enthusiasts. Over the next 5 years, he held numerous exhibitions here and painted a large and diverse body of work. In 1969, he held an eighteen canvas exhibition titled 'Compromise,' which 'expressed the aesthetic dilemma of the artist. In these works be built on his previous experimentation with abstraction from 1967, where he had painted with soft lozenges of spring like colours, yellows, greens, pinks and touches of blue. BM referred to these works as a balanced 'discipline series of non-figurative paintings...I was in love and was loved - it was an idyllic period.' (Marjorie Husain, The Last of the Bohemians, Post Office Foundation Press, Karachi, 2006, pg. 131) In the eighteen 1969 works, he experimented further and combined the desire for unrestricted freedom of expression while conceding to form in his employment of geometric shapes.'(ibid. pg. 45)

BM sold 'The Gallery' in 1969 and set off for Germany to be with his lover, Lucy. 'Before setting off for Germany, Bashir assembled a select collection of handicrafts from various regions and paintings by different artists to exhibit abroad...Bashir spent his initial days in Germany exploring Frankfurt... he approached the Pakistan Embassy and succeeded in interesting the officials with his objectives. With their help he organised exhibitions of the paintings he had taken along in several cities, where by all accounts they were well received. The paintings were exhibited at the Galerie Christopher Durr in Munich, and the Galerie Moderne Kunst, Stuttgart, as well as Studio Krull in Krefeld. (ibid pg. 45)

Compromise 6 was one of the works from his 1969 exhibition which he took with him to Germany and exhibited in Munich. Here he has combined the formalism of Mondrian and the abstract expressionism of Pollock. Through gestural brushstrokes, splatters, and drips, BM infused his canvas with a palpable sense of energy and movement while the crisp lines, geometric shapes and restrained colour palette are reminiscent of Mondrian's iconic grid compositions.

To see another from the series sold in these rooms, see Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern & South Asian Art, 3rd June 2009, London, lot 19.