If there is anyone who can turn an excruciating pain into a beautiful yet wrenching thing then it has to be an artist. It takes immense dedication and commitment to carve a beauty especially from a place which has been nothing but dominated with distressing events.
Masood Hussain
A painter who rendered legendary poet Agha Shahid Ali’s couplets on canvas, Masood Hussain is known to paint blood and beauty. His paintings showcase his dreadful experience which ended up driving him to paint a series of paintings portraying bloodshed and violence.
His favourite colour is blue because it has infinite spiritual depth. He usually works on themes from Kashmir in its various essences.
An artist’s life experience is an integral part of his work, the painter believes.
“And Kashmir being very close to my heart has always been a part of my work, its beauty, its tragedy, and my feelings for it all come together in my work.”
Veer Munshi
Born and brought up in the valley, Veer Munshi migrated to Delhi in 1990. But this never came in between his love for the valley.
“I am an outsider insider,” he once said. “When I visit now, I stay in hotels which is a very different experience for me. If anyone visits a place after 20 years they will feel lost. But if you keep engaging with the place you might find your foothold. After all, it’s your roots. The urge of being there is always present. Whenever I get an excuse to visit I always go.”
His migration inspired him to showcase his journey and his agony through this artform.
Veer Munshi’s artwork reflects the changes that have taken place in Kashmir over the last decade.
Jasia Iqbal Nowshahri
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A self-taught artist, Jasia Iqbal Nowshahri has become an inspiration to the youngsters in the valley.
“For me inspiration can be found in the simplest of places,” she says. “A routine mundane scene can extract enough inspiration to put something on a canvas.”
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The feeling of a complete, filled canvas is the drive that keeps her on it, she says.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B5-2vOXnoaf/
She used the social media platform to establish her as a painter in the valley which turned out to be more effective when people over social media started buying her artworks.
Ansab Jehan
Born in North Kashmir, Ansab Jehan has been painting from a young age. She is a self-taught visual artist and painter. Her artworks have been celebrated throughout.
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To help re-constructing homes of people who have lost their homes in cross-fire between militants and army, she has sold her artworks in the form of Eid cards and donated money to them.
She says she likes to preserve memories and incidents happening and happened around her through her art.
Syed Mujtaba Rizvi
Artist Syed Mujtaba Rizvi believes that the creative process of art thrives in a conflict zone.
His painting of a woman holding a dead child is a continuation of a series that Rizvi started in recent years. It is called Redundant Conversations.
It is a painting of one of the minarets of the historic Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
These works will languish as they have always. But they are an antidote to the news that usually portrays Kashmir.
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