Marjorie Husain
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Marjorie Husain
Marjorie Husain was a notable art critic and has played a significant role in promoting Pakistan’s art and culture nationally and internationally. She has curated and organized art exhibitions around the world and her writings have been published in all the major newspapers and magazines of the country. She has also authored numerous books on art, including biographies of Pakistani Art Masters.
Marjorie Husain was a prominent Pakistani art critic, writer, and curator. She was born in London in 1930 and grew up in undivided India. She passed away on July 15, 2018, in Karachi, Pakistan.
Husain was a leading authority on Pakistani art and culture and wrote extensively on these subjects. She was a regular contributor to art publications, including Art Asia Pacific, Art Monthly Australia, and Asian Art News, and also wrote for Pakistani newspapers and journals. She was particularly interested in the work of female artists and championed their contributions to the art world.
Husain also curated exhibitions, both in Pakistan and internationally. She was instrumental in organizing the first major exhibition of contemporary Pakistani art, "The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan," which was held at the Mohatta Palace Museum in Karachi in 1990. The exhibition featured works by over 40 artists and was widely acclaimed for its representation of the diverse and vibrant art scene in Pakistan.
In addition to her work as a critic and curator, Husain was also an educator. She taught art history and criticism at the National College of Arts in Lahore and at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi.
Throughout her career, Husain received numerous awards and honors for her contributions to the arts in Pakistan. She was awarded the President's Pride of Performance Award in 2000 and the Sitara-i-Imtiaz in 2006, two of Pakistan's highest civilian honors. Her legacy continues to inspire and influence the art world in Pakistan and beyond.
For the sake of art
By Fouzia Mapara
Renowned art critic, author, curator and painter, Marjorie Husain is an incredible one person database of the history and development of art and artists in Pakistan. But that does not make her a computer, for insight and intellect, peppered with spontaneous anecdotes and humour, define her thoughts and demeanour. Someone should clone the woman.
Perhaps it was the crisp November morning with a mere hint of chill in the air, the sun’s rays creating dark and light shades on the lush green privet hedges and pretty shadows of the crisscross latticework, the typical characteristic of colonial buildings in Karachi; or was it the homely smell of fresh, just out of the oven cakes and biscuits that had a balmy effect on me, as I sat waiting at a table by the window in the Sindh Club bakery? Or maybe it was her friendly demeanour, her treasure of knowledge and her soft voice that made it a truly memorable morning for a delightful chat with Marjorie Husain.
Renowned art critic, author, curator, painter, Marjorie Husain is an incredible one-person database of the history and development of art and artists in Pakistan. But that does not make her a computer, for insight and intellect, peppered with spontaneous anecdotes define your thoughts on her. Someone should clone the woman.
I asked her if she ever thought she was irreplaceable for the Pakistani art scene. She answered, “I hope not! Although today the ambience has changed from what it used to be. Previously people used to be involved in it for the love of art; there was no money in it. It was like a vocation. Now everything has become commercial.”
As long as she could remember, her family was interested in art and there have been discussions about art and drawing.
“Art was something that I grew up with or imbibed. Somewhere in my mother’s ancestral line was Gustav Dore, who they would always talk about. Somehow we didn’t take much notice of that. Most of my cousins could draw very well. My sister and a brother went to art school.”
Marjorie has one sister and three brothers and she remembers her childhood as a regular protected one with parents looking after the children.
“Rationing continued after the [Second World] War but we didn’t know any different. I remember that we were quite young but on Sunday afternoons we were allowed to go to the art museum in London to see the paintings. We would sit on the train and that would be our outing.”
All kinds of art interest her but Marjorie believes that art should be exciting. She says, “One should see the artist in it and if one can feel the emotion and passion of the artist, then it is something quite exciting. Contrived art is different because one doesn’t get much out of it. One could always admire the line and colour but then it is not so memorable.”
She shares an interesting anecdote from her personal life: “For a while one of my brothers was interested in Buddhism and joined a community in England and their teacher was an Englishman who had lived in India for 30 years and then went into Buddhism. When he was told about one of the fellow students had fallen in love, he said something that was quite interesting. He said, ‘Oh what’s wrong with the fellow, send him to an art gallery, there’s not much colour in his life!’”
Marjorie’s real passion is artists like Craigie Aitchison, Colin David, Jamil Naqsh, Naeem and several younger artists. She believes Nahid Raza and Mehr Afroze are very sincere about their work. Explaining further, she adds, “I am always excited about new things like people doing installations, new mediums and modes of expressions. In the Saatchi Gallery in London, near the Westminster Bridge, I must admit, when I go there, I do have a good laugh. For instance, they had this glass of water on the floor. They would go on about how it changes concept and dimension, and I found that extremely amusing. But in a very uplifting way I do enjoy it. Its cheeky maybe for the wrong reason but you do get something out of it in one way or the other.”
One of Marjorie’s paintings is displayed at the Lahore Museum, however, she stopped painting when she started running The Gallery in 1970 and switched over to writing on art. “Painting was not a vocation, no loss to the world. I loved painting portraits. I enjoyed using my hands and I would get paint on and use oils and work on the expression of the person. But I don’t paint anymore. I just write about art.
“I feel that for painting or art, you need space and have to be disciplined. It is more suited to people like Nahid Raza who have worked and fulfilled all their responsibilities. At night they paint and actually make do with very little sleep. You have to be focused and there are certainly so many other things I want to do,” she adds.
Marjorie Husain has devoted a whole lifetime to introducing Pakistani art within the country, as well as abroad. She came to Pakistan in the 1960s, straight from an art school where she met her husband, and after some time gave up painting to look after the first privately owned art gallery in Pakistan, after its founder Bashir Mirza left for Germany. The stint lasted for a year, but her association with the artists and the art scene continued to grow stronger.
More than the projection of Pakistani art abroad, Husain prefers to concentrate on the local scene through her books. Explaining her viewpoint, she says, “When I am writing, it is for the Pakistani students of art and for them to know how art developed. I think there is a market outside, but I wouldn’t know how to deal with that. I’m just doing my thing here in a modest sort of way. Promotion of Pakistani art will happen at some point though.
“In fact, I did a catalogue for some people in India who were doing a show for Jamil Naqsh in Delhi. They had also asked me to write a book on Jamil. When I asked him for more information, he, being a private person, said whatever you want to know is already in that one! I think they might make the book a big venture. If the Indians are keen on Pakistani art, I’m sure they would be too in the West. But is there a market for books on art in Pakistan? As far as books on art are concerned, if people can afford to pay for art and books on art, printers will come forward to print books.
“Or if there are cultural centres or guilds like in England where people are given grants, more people will be attracted. Presently there are some organisations that sponsor books, for instance, the NCA sponsored the book on Anna Molka. But, generally, people find it difficult to write about something and have it put together and take it to the printer’s. It is quite a job!”
She has written seven books on art. “The last one was about Anna Molka Ahmed and researching her life and writing about her was a wonderful journey,” Marjorie discloses. Her other books include, Aspects of Art, Bashir Mirza: The Last of the Bohemians and Ali Imam: Man of the Arts.
Aspects of Art is a textbook for students that has been very successful because there was a need for it. “It started at the time when Nahid Raza was running a school and wanted me to do a book on eastern and western art. Initially I panicked but later agreed to the challenge. I went to England and picked up a lot of books there and it took me a year to put it all together.”
Having always been an avid reader, Marjorie Husain feels writing may have taken the place of the so-called need to express oneself. “It takes me away like painting used to. Books are very time consuming because you’re the writer, the editor, you’re doing research and then have to take it to the printer’s. Sometimes the colours don’t come out well and there are all sorts of things that take up energy and time,” she explains.
Husain finds writing more challenging than painting because it requires a great deal of research that she enjoys, “I feel the motivation there because there has been very little documentation and when I got involved with art in the `60s, I knew most of them. There were people I had enormous respect for and I felt they deserved to be written about and remembered, so that gave me a lot of pleasure to be able to put together information about them in a simple, readable way.”
So who does Husain admire most, the writer within or the painter? “There are a few of my paintings that I was really quite pleased with, and some written pieces. It really depends on the inspiration and mood,” she answers.
Each book was a different experience. “When I compiled a book on Ahmad Parvez, it took a lot of time as I had to research articles through newspapers which were not much more than scraps. I had to tape them all up and go through them.”
Talking about her book on Syed Ali Imam, she said that Ali Imam had planned it as a close collaboration between “us; when he finally consented to be the subject of a monograph, we were to meet over a period of time and map out the format of his varied lifetimes. Sadly that was not to be.
“After an initial meeting during which Imam enthusiastically brought out a pile of photographs and cuttings, we were unable to continue our sessions as Imam had a heart attack. But I remembered he had made a tape with the instruction that while he was alive it could not be used. He had said a lot on the two-hour duration tape which helped me with the book,” Marjorie remembers.
She believes that in the last 30 years, art has expanded beyond one’s imagination, adding, “People worked in the past but there was not much buying. In recent years there has been a great interest shown by Indian dealers and by Asians who have settled in Europe and one finds that Sothebys, Christies and Bonhams are auctioning work like that of Sadequain’s. One could not imagine his work would sell for such huge amounts and I’m not sure he would have approved of auctions. Ahmed Parvez’s work now sells for more than three hundred thousand rupees.”
The boom in the art market started in the `70s with The Gallery in Karachi, as business started thriving and people were building new houses. “There was camaraderie in art exhibits and social events. There was no market and no competition, all that came later. Even when there was no market, people like Sultan Ahmed and Amjad Ali wrote pages on these artists. And then people started buying art for their nice houses as they wanted to put up pictures.
“Bashir Mirza was one of the few artists trained at the NCA and artists gave each other a lot of respect. Advertising started in the `60s and ad agencies were a blessing for artists. The newly established TV stations took a lot of artists and suddenly they could earn money through art. So, in reality they were the pioneers who had had a tough time, even people like Chughtai.”
Husain’s commentary on art is always peppered with a story here and an anecdote there.
“Jamil Naqash told me that when he first came to Karachi, he was looking for a job. He spent a day at the zoo and drew a tiger for truck art and when he turned up with it, it was not at all what was wanted. So he had to learn the language of truck art. And I believe he also said that when Shakir Ali came back from Europe in 1951, he also did that for a while,” she discloses.
Talking about the present day art scene, Marjorie Husain says, “There is a lot of excitement. Currently the contemporary miniature movement is highly successful and the interest began with Shazia Sikander in 1990. Art dealers from all over the world are showing interest. Imran Kureishi and Aisha Khalid are represented by a London gallery, and are very popular. Ali Kazim, recently showed his work at the VM Gallery in Karachi, and he is another artist well-represented abroad. From Quetta, one has talented artists such as Akram Dost, Kaleem Khan, Khadim Ali and Jamil Baloch, who teaches sculpture at the NCA.”
The market may be limited to Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad, but the varying political and socioeconomic scene has made people stronger as opposed to a more conducive environment where grants and scholarships are available. Nevertheless, people prefer to buy signatures.
Husain elaborates, “It is quite understandable that people go to a gallery and want to know if they have so and so. It is the show value that they are more interested in, but there is nothing wrong with that. There is no market in Balochistan, for instance, they have an Arts Council in Quetta and they seem quite adjusted to the idea. They are fine artists and come down, from time to time, to the bigger cities and put up their work in a gallery.”
Over the years, Marjorie Husain feels that challenges have evolved for artistes. “In the past there were no differences between artists, no barriers. Now things are different. There is more competition. In the past the challenge was to get buyers. Laila Shehzada painted pretty pictures in the early days and Nagi taught her how to do oils, Guljee was friendly with her but they all expected pretty paintings out of her. Until she had this revelation on the beach and she found driftwood and she discovered herself and that was her challenge.
“Anna Molka and Zubeida Agha were absolutely wonderful people but, to be taken seriously, they had a bit of a façade which frightened people. Even I was a bit scared before I had met them then I got to know them through the armour. Their challenge was to be taken seriously as women artists,” Husain explains.
On her wish list is a national art gallery for Karachi. “We recently opened an art gallery in Islamabad and we had been talking about it for so many years. But we really need something like that in Karachi. Wish we could have the Frere Hall but, presently for security reasons, one is not even allowed to walk in the surrounding park,” she regrets.
While people may enjoy painting in their time out, Husain enjoys reading detective stories and crime mysteries. She adds, “PD James, Elizabeth George are among my favourites. I used to be into Oscar Wilde and was a Somerset Maugham fan but have now given in to crime!”
When in England, in addition to visiting galleries, she enjoys going to the cinema, “I still remember watching this film about Edith Piaf and with the lights off in the cinema and the huge screen and you just become a part of the film.”
Marjorie Husain believes that there are many paths one could take at any point in life but it is all predestined. She explains, “There is plenty to do yet. What makes me sad sometimes is that during my years in Pakistan I have seen so much untapped talent everywhere, a lot of creativity and aesthetic sense in the rural areas but, no, their potential has not been tapped.
“There should be a way to discover all that talent in the masses or in the street child who plays cricket. Laila and I were in Naltar where she did her sleeping mountain series and we saw so many children there who made their own skiis. Wish there was more opportunity for them to train.”
And there is plenty yet on Marjorie’s plate or shall we say palette! “Nahid Raza, Jamal Shah and Iqbal Hussain are exhibiting their work at the Bradford University in December. Previously, David Hockney had exhibited there and Paula Rega. Then there is a calendar project; then, of course, The Gallery. I am seriously going to start working on my next book. I have to be focused for that and there is too much going on at the moment,” she adds in the end.
