I helped my father who was a house painter and decorative painter. He made stage sets, he made glass paintings, he made everything. I was in the workshop and watched him. So as a child so-called art was not my view. That was, in my opinion, my father’s job. But I liked to watch him; he comes, as my mother also, from a very craftsman’s background. My father’s parents were carpenters. They were also builders partly. They were painters. And several of them were very, active in the theater and all such nonsense, you know. On my mother’s side there was much more heavy craft. They were blacksmiths. They made a specialty horse shoes and nails for them.. .So, as a child, my main fun was to watch others working. I loved to walk to the neighboring carpenter’s place and up to the neighboring shoemaker in my home town.

I helped my father who was a house painter and decorative painter. He made stage sets, he made glass paintings, he made everything. I was in the workshop and watched him. So as a child so-called art was not my view. That was, in my opinion, my father’s job. But I liked to watch him; […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 30, 2020 | Created on June 30, 2020

But besides relatedness and influence I should like to see that my colors remain, as much as possible, a ‘face’ –their own ‘face’, as it was achieved – uniquely — and I believe consciously – in Pompeian wall-paintings – by admitting coexistence of such polarities as being dependent and independent — being dividual and individual. Often, with paintings, more attention is drawn to the outer, physical, structure of the color means than to the inner, functional, structure of the color action.. .Here now follow a few details of the technical manipulation of the colorants which in my painting usually are oil paints and only rarely casein paints. On a ground of the whitest white available – half or less absorbent – and built up in layers – on the rough side of panels of untempered Masonite – paint is applied with a palette knife directly from the tube to the panel and as thin and even as possible in one primary coat. Consequently there is no under or over painting or modeling or glazing and no added texture – so-called.. .As a result this kind of painting presents an inlay (intarsia) of primary thin paints films – not layered, laminated, nor mixed wet, half or more dry, paint skins. Such homogeneous thin and primary films will dry, that is, oxidize, of course, evenly – and so without physical and/or chemical complication – to a healthy, durable paint surface of increasing luminosity.

But besides relatedness and influence I should like to see that my colors remain, as much as possible, a ‘face’ –their own ‘face’, as it was achieved – uniquely — and I believe consciously – in Pompeian wall-paintings – by admitting coexistence of such polarities as being dependent and independent — being dividual and individual. […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 30, 2020 | Created on June 30, 2020

Seeing several of these paintings [his series paintings ‘Hommage to the square’, Josef Albers painted in 1963-64] next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation on its own. This means that they all are of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, as well as their order, is aimed at an interaction – influencing and changing each other forth and back. Thus, character and feeling alter from painting to painting without any additional ‘handwriting’ or, so-called, texture. Though the underlying symmetrical and quasi-concentric order of squares remains the same in all paintings – in proportion and placement – these same squares group or single themselves, connect and separate in many different ways In consequence, they move forth and back, in and out, and grow up and down and near and far, as well as enlarged and diminished. All this to proclaim color autonomy as a means of plastic organization.

Seeing several of these paintings [his series paintings ‘Hommage to the square’, Josef Albers painted in 1963-64] next to each other makes it obvious that each painting is an instrumentation on its own. This means that they all are of different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates. Choice of the colors used, […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 30, 2020 | Created on June 30, 2020

THE ORIGIN OF ART: The discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect. THE CONTENT OF ART: Visual information of our reaction to life. THE MEASURE OF ART: The ratio of effort to effect. THE AIM OF ART: Revelation and evocation of vision.

THE ORIGIN OF ART: The discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect. THE CONTENT OF ART: Visual information of our reaction to life. THE MEASURE OF ART: The ratio of effort to effect. THE AIM OF ART: Revelation and evocation of vision.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 30, 2020 | Created on June 30, 2020