This volume on the late Laila Shahzada, is the third in a series of monographs being produced by FOMMA - Foundation for the Museum of Modern Art aimed at introducing outstanding cotemporary artists and architects. Other titles published in the Series include:
Ali Imam : Man of the Arts, and
Zubeida Agha : A Poineer of Modern Art in Pakistan.
LAILA SHAHZADA
1925-1994
Laila Shahzada was foremost among the handful of women artists of the 60s brave enough to forge a modern idiom to articulate their aesthetic sensibilities. Fascinated by driftwood washed along the seashores of Karachi, she conjured her singular "Driftmoods", a series of contorted, swirling rhythms laden with enotive content. The first artist to draw inspiration from the archeological sites of the Indus Valley and Taxila region, Laila's oeuvre played an important role in initiating and popularizing the ancient history of Pakistan as viable subject matter. An Artist with a number of international exhibitions to her credit, she was the only Pakistani to be honoured with the key to the city of New York.
Always exploring an inner landscape Laila's art was characterized by rich colouration and stirring organic undulations with a strong accent on the surreal and the mystical. Free spirited and bohemian by nature she was a very warm and generous person who enjoyed the goodwill of the art freaternity.
Salwat Ali is a practising artist with a strong interest in the history and culture of Pakistan. She has been writing on art since the 1990s. Her articles, reviews, essays and reports are published on a weekly and monthly basis in the country's leading newspapers and periodicals like Dawn Gallery, an exclusive art supplement of Dawn, as well as the Tapestry page of The News, and Artline, the speical art pages of the magazine Newsline.
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