Jamil Naqsh

(1939-2019)

Untitled (Seated Woman)

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a private collection, London.
Acquired from the artist.

'Life's unending monotony
Was unbearable
But I accepted the pain
And began to live with it
An oyster feels the agony
Caused by a grain of sand
But it covers the pain
Layer upon layer
Creating a thing of beauty
Thus I paint'

Jamil Naqsh, 1997

Naqsh began to attain critical acclaim in the seventies and eighties, and his style reflected the multiplicity of influences from Europe and America. He fused pointillist techniques, cubist elements and the geometrical division of pictorial space with his unique style to create aesthetically pleasing works. In Untitled (Seated Woman) and Untitled (La Pietà) we can see these influences clearly.

Women were a common theme in Naqsh's works, and he found ways to showcase them in new ways. In Untitled (Seated Woman), the woman has been depicted in a room, which is unusual for Naqsh, who accompanies his nudes with doves against an abstract background. Here, she is seated in the foreground leaning against a door bearing a subdued expression, whilst in the background we can see a bright carpet, pillows, a newspaper and a bottle. Despite the undercurrent of sadness, the intense reds, striking blues and warm yellows and greens that populate the picture add a sense of lightness. The pointillist technique, which is the application of small dots to create an image, achieves a remarkable optical blending effect, resulting in a vibrant and harmonious composition that shimmers with light and colour.

Conversely, Untitled (La Pietà) is monochrome, and yet it emanates light. An rare subject and one that directly engages with art history, Naqsh has produced his own version of La Pietà, Michelangelo's sculptural masterpiece. Sculpted in 1498-99, La Pietà portrays the body of Christ laying on the lap of his mother, Mary, after the Crucifixion. Displayed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, it was carved from a single block of marble and epitomizes Michelangelo's unparalleled skill in rendering the human form with exquisite detail and emotional depth, evoking a profound sense of sorrow and compassion. Naqsh would have seen the sculpture and been inspired, and his own version is an exquisite homage to the original. Its modest dimensions suggest that it may have been intended as an altarpiece, and yet despite its size Naqsh has captured every detail with precision. His brushwork appears seamless and he captures the universal themes of sorrow and solace, inviting viewers to contemplate the enduring bond between mother and child across cultures and generations.