First Lady Samina Alvi on Monday said that along with still life paintings, the promotion of Islamic and Pakistani art at the international level was equally essential.

The first lady, addressing a photo exhibition held here at Pakistan National Council of Arts, urged the youth and emerging artists to benefit from the exhibition which marked the display of artists’ works from across the country. She said painting, calligraphy, statute and sculpture making, drawing, dance and music were the modes of expression opted by the artists to express their emotions.

She said the fine arts allowed humans to better express their emotions and likened the importance of the fine arts to life itself.

The first lady, who earlier inaugurated the exhibition, said that fine arts helped establish linkages with human history and evolution as it was also a method of promoting nation’s cultural traditions. She said the Islamic culture and art were rich with great traditions as the Islamic artifacts had got prominence across the world. She said in the current era of science and technology, the importance of fine arts could not be overlooked as technology also led to the emergence of modern forms of art. Many universities, colleges and institutions are playing their role to promote art education, though it needed to be improved further, she added.

Citing the national talent, the first lady said Pakistan’s artists were bringing fame to Pakistan. However, collective efforts were a must to promote the artifacts as the artists were rich with talent but lacked resources to promote their works. The exhibitions helped the artists to promote their works at local and international levels.

Speaking on the occasion, Amna Pataudi said that still-life drawing and painting is the seed which sprouted all other genres but unfortunately, it lost a lot of ground comparing to modern art forms like portrait, landscape, computer graphics and digital art. “We owe a debt of gratitude to artists who are exhibiting their works in this exhibition, and continue promoting still-life as art.” The idea of curating a show on ‘Still-Life’ is to revisit this very intimate and distinctive genre of painting, she said. Local painters were introduced to different popular genres of European painting, such as portrait and figure painting, landscape painting and still life’s which they eagerly adopted.

Source: Pakistan Observer