Anwar Jalal Shemza

Estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza

Acquired by ASAL Collection, 2005

Acquired by a private collector, 2011

Acquired from the above, 2011

Catalogue, The Asal Collection, Asal Partners Limited, 2009, illustration pl. 63, p. 92 [Square Composition III]

I. Dadi (ed.), Anwar Jalal Shemza, London, Ridinghouse, London, 2015, illustrations p. 106-107 [Square Composition I & III]

"[Shemza's] paintings derive equally from the rhythmical space-filling patterns of the rug and from the 'growing line' of modern western art. His pictures are not mere patterns and images, and their forms, whether painted or drawn, invest the surface with a mysterious life." (A. Forge quoted in J. Holt, 'Anwar Jalal Shemza: A Search for the 'Significant'', Third Text, Vol. 12, Issue 42, 1998, p. 107) 

Anwar Jalal Shemza studied at the Mayo School of Art (now National College of Art) in Lahore in 1944, learning miniature painting among other techniques. A talented writer and artist, Shemza published several short novels in the 1950s, edited an Urdu literary journal and ran a graphic studio. Later, he moved to the UK to study at the Slade School of Art, London where he began to receive critical attention for his artwork. Showing alongside Francis Newton Souza and Avinash Chandra at Victor Musgrave’s influential Gallery One in London in 1960, Shemza was an active and well-respected member of the arts community, featuring at the Gulbenkian Museum in Durham in 1963 and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in 1964.

Throughout his career, Shemza explored Roman letters, Arabic and Persian calligraphic designs and geometric arrangements in his art. In the current lot, Shemza created different arrangements of the letters B and D combined with floating circles and semicircles. The works demonstrate a clear vision and masterful control of line, shape and color, all elements perfectly complimenting one another to create three elegant companion compositions.