Imran qureshi series#

Imran Qureshi вЂ“ And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains Are Washed Clean, 2013, acrylic, 743 sqm., installation view, Roof Garden, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2013, photo: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0В by gsz You get used to it but in a very different way. I think this is another kind of psychological effect. The idea was that when there were so many blasts that we have experienced, then the lack of an attack of violence causes people to wonder and become uncomfortable. They start walking and looking at the flowers and when they reach the unpainted part, they once again get uncomfortable because they wonder why this part was not painted. The idea was that when you first enter this installation, you feel unconformable, but slowly people get used to it. So thatвЂ™s why I created this sharp finishing line. Somehow that word stuck to mind when I was working there and it became manifested in my work. In the news, they were continuously using the word вЂfinishing lineвЂ™. When I was about to fly to New York to create this installation (Met rooftop installation), the Boston bomb blast had just happened.

Imran qureshi series#

So, Qureshi postponed creating a series of more slanting lines, a bit askew from the grid. While the project at the Met was still undergoing, the Boston bombings happened. He started to create tragic sceneries that contradict the notion of paradise on earth. Qureshi began incorporating red acrylic paint in his work in response to the bombings in Lahore. Still, during its Civil War exhibition in 2013, there was a particular sense of despair and trauma in some sections of its galleries since so many contemporary pieces echo what the world is still witnessing these days.

There is plenty of war art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Using the 8,000-square feet open-air space above the ground as his canvas, the artist created patterns of lush decorative leaves out of his spilled and spattered red acrylic paint and evoked the flourishing enclosed gardens that are pervasive in miniatures of the Mughal court.

The artwork is titled вЂњAnd How Many Rains Must Fall Before The Stains Are Washed CleanвЂќ, which reminds of Cy Twombly, Mughal Miniature Art, as well as the violence that permeates the Pakistani society. Imran Qureshi announced himself to the world in 2013 with his large-scale site-specific work at the Roof Garden of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Imran Qureshi вЂ“ And They Still Seek the Traces of Blood, 2013, installation view, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, 2014, photo: Aaron Word MET Roof garden installation The flowers that seem to emerge from the red paint in my work represent the hope that вЂ“ despite everything вЂ“ the people sustain somehow, their hope for a better future. And the particular color of red that I have been using in recent years can look so real, like blood. Leaves and nature, for example, represent the idea of life. The dialogue between life and death is an important element in my work. He synthesizes personal observations on day-to-day life in present-day Pakistan while identifying that violence can be met in many societies and cultures worldwide and not only in his home country.

His painting features a unique fusion of the genreвЂ™s styles and techniques with the current issues and the recognized language of contemporary abstract painting. He has refined the regional and traditionally rooted painting style and took it to the modern day. Many art critics widely consider Imran Qureshi to be one of the most influential Pakistani contemporary artists.

5 And they still seek the traces of blood (2013).