Anwar Jalal Shemza was active in both artistic and literary circles, publishing novels in Urdu and editing the periodical Ehsas. He was also a founding member in the early 1950s of the Lahore Art Circle that pioneered modern art in Pakistan. Composition in Red, Green, and Yellow (1963) belongs to the Square Compositions series Shemza began in 1963. Vibrant colours and shades of blacks are orchestrated in rhythmic shapes and patterns. The work consists of crescents, semi-circles, and circles wedged into square and rectangular units. Yet, despite its seeming repetitive nature, the grid-like arrangement provides many variations. Its lines are also imperfect, sagging and irregular, and its rendering deliberately uneven, thus emphasising the composition’s handmade character. Upturning the conventions of minimalism, Shemza’s painting is imbued, as in the case of his Meem and Roots series, with subtle cultural references – beginning with his consistent use of Urdu to date and sign his geometric works.
This is the first time the work of Anwar Jalal Shemza is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Devika Singh
