Mughees Riaz

The love for landscape and Ravi River, his mark of identity

Mughees opened his eyes in a family that was somehow related to the visual arts. His father Mahmood Khalid Riaz is a well-known designer who inspired his sons to explore this filed with diverse approaches. One of Mughees’ brothers Nauman Riaz is a fashion designer while another one, Imran Riaz is a qualified sculptor.

The atmosphere at home was strong enough for him to go for the world of visual arts rather than wasting any time in exploring other popular fields that were considered suitable for young males in Pakistan. Mughees went on to take admission at the Department of Fine Arts of the University of the Punjab just after completing his intermediate level of education. As a family tradition, he sought admission in the Design department, but nature had her own plans for Mughees; he was offered admission in Painting. That is how he stepped in; to become a painter of his individual class.

In his school days, Mughees had this practice of making different scenes on his answer sheets after solving question papers well before time. These scenes were often of children flying kites or playing in a garden or field. This was the time for him to fall in love with landscape-painting which he later adopted as a passion and profession.

After getting admission to the Fine Arts department, Mughees kept on doing regular assignments of painting and drawing, and during this course, he fashioned his skills for various styles of painting like portraits, figures and landscapes.

In 1997, Mughees completed his BFA (Bachelors in Fine Arts) and went on to do his MFA (Masters in Fine Arts) in 1999. During these years, he presented his mini thesis that was comprised of compositions of dogs, cats and human figures in electrical pale light. He, through his visual idiom, developed a relationship of human life to its surroundings and nature. Many critics wrote on his work, and Mughees came to the limelight as an emerging painter. At the same time, his love for portraits, always remained alive, and he rendered numerous portraits of his cousins, uncles, aunts, friends and class fellows.

When in 1999, it was a time to submit the final thesis; few important happenings were to determine Mughees’ destiny, as well as his destination. In those days, the concluding MFA thesis in painting used to be strictly based on Figurative Compositions. For a change, Mughees came up with an idea of painting a four-panel landscape painting. Fortunately enough, his teachers granted him permission to submit his thesis in the form of landscape painting instead of traditionally accepted figure composition. Therefore, he started painting a landscape for which; he selected a spot along the bank of the Ravi River. When Mughees was about to complete his painting, and was applying final touches to his canvas, an old man came to him and said, “You have painted really well; May Allah bless you in life and hereafter. I have been with painter Allah Bakhsh and have seen him painting as well.”

These words were a little strange for Mughees and when he realized the meanings of these words, he looked at the face of that old man, but could not say anything to him. After applying few more strokes, he looked around for that old man to ask him about Allah Bakhsh (the pioneer painter of Pakistan), but Mughees could not find him around.

Three years later, one day when Mughees entered the Alhamra Art Gallery, which is also known as Allah Bakhsh Gallery, he found a portrait of an elderly man hanging at the entrance. He asked about that portrait and when he came to know that it was the portrait of Ustad Allah Baksh, it surprised and shocked him – that portrait was showing the face of that old man whom Mughees had met at the riverbank.

Mughees tries to capture the light, its effects and subtlety of shades rather than painting objects as they appear to his sight. In this manner, he could represent the hazy atmosphere of Punjab with dusty ambiance, which he put in contrast, usually with the shimmering black of the buffalos and crows as symbols of human association with nature.

Mughees completed his degree with distinction, however; the love for landscape and Ravi River became his mark of identity. By 1998, Mughees started to participate in group-shows and since then, he had been displaying his work regularly in the exhibitions of the Artists’ Association of Punjab. He also won many prizes and awards of the Young Artists Association that he started participating in since 1994. Mughees took part in many international exhibitions and represented Pakistan with his matchless frames. Many national and international art critics have put their thoughts in black and white for the art of Mughees Riaz.

In 2001, Mughees put on display his first solo exhibition at Ejaz Galleries Lahore. Three years later in 2004, he had a one-man show at Canvas Art Gallery Karachi. Since 2004, nothing could stop his numerous solo exhibitions, one after another, almost every year, except for 2006 and 2010.

Renowned art critics of Pakistan have given a serious consideration to the works of Mughees Riaz and have included it in their books, journals and periodicals. In 2005, Marjorie Husain included his work in her book “Art Views” while in 2008; Salwat Ali’s book “Journeys of the Spirit” presented an article entitled “Evacuative Landscape” on Mughees’ art. Both these books were a publication of Foundation for Museum of Modern Arts (FOMMA) Karachi.

The author teaches Art-history at the University College of Art and Design, Lahore. He is a Researcher, Art-Historian and Art-Critic with special interest in Western Art, South Asian Art and Art in Pakistan.