ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YOULIN MAGAZINE
The 12th edition of the international art event “Sonsbeek20→24” continues to increase the conversation on multiculturalism and diversity, by inviting artists from various parts of the world to participate in a series of exhibitions and talks. Imran Mir is currently being showcased in a three-chapter exhibition with a solo presentation of his works at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, which opened on 2 July and continues until 16 October 2022. The central themes of the ‘Sonsbeek20→24’ are ‘Force Times Distance – On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies’, which examines relationships and associations created between the self and modern art.
Imran Mir was a designer, illustrator, painter, and sculptor. Imran Mir started his artistic journey studying Graphic Design at the Central Institute Of Arts and Crafts (CIAC) in Karachi, when the famed art teacher Ali Imam was at the helm of the school as its Principal. Prominent artists of the time like Rashid Arshed, Afsar M Naqvi and Bashir Mirza were also teaching at CIAC. Mir apprenticed with Sadequain and as a student, became friends with his painting hero Ahmed Pervez. Interactions with literary legends like Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ahmed Faraz were part of his art education experience in Pakistan.
After a brief spell at the Royal College of Art in Copenhagen, Mir travelled to North America, where he completed his Master’s in Communication Design and Experimental Art with honours from Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada. During this phase of his life, light installations, photography, and kinetic sculpture became the foundations of his interdisciplinary practice. On returning to Pakistan in 1978, he was engaged in building a successful advertising career. His work experience as Creative Editor of Dawn Group and the Herald, led him to pursue launching his advertising firm called Circuit. He became an award-winning designer, with over 5000 logos and advertisements in his commercial portfolio.
Imran Mir’s first exhibition in Karachi was First Paper on Modern Art, titled by his mentor and close friend Bashir Mirza. This debut exhibition began a lifelong series of exhibitions based on introspective investigations and reflective research into the art of visualisation. The Third Paper on Modern Art curated by Ali Imam in 1980, described the showcase as a “dialectical process of creating and solving serious aesthetic problems”. Imran Mir’s practice was unconventional, complex, minimal and highly conceptual for its time. Mir’s work initially was received with hesitation and opposition, but this did not dampen his spirits. By 1985, the Sixth Paper On Modern Art was exhibited at the Haroon House, followed by Seventh Paper On Modern Art, which galvanised Mir’s art career.
In Imran Mir: What You See Is What You See, the artist states, “I enjoy art. I am an artist constantly, not just when I am creating it. When I walk down a street all my senses are open to the influx of sensations. I see the sharp lines of a building, the swaying branches of the trees, and the showering droplets of a fountain and I am filled with a yearning to incorporate these visual experiences into my art.” The viewer encounters the optical wavelengths encrypted into the canvas in the form of geometric patterns, colour composition, three-dimensionality, elemental energy and harmony in motion. Imran Mir was part of the founding artists’ collection that started Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA) in 1989. He enjoyed loyal friendships that impacted his practice and personal life. Mir experienced a spectrum of life experiences that were exceptionally rare for the time. In 2013, Mir started working on what would become his final Paper titled “Twelfth Paper On Modern Art”, which consisted of 28 paintings and 8 installation works.
Viewers can enter Mir’s world through his international solo exhibition “Abstracting Parables” curated by Amal Alhaag and Aude Christel Mgba in collaboration with Sonsbeek20→24, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Imran Mir Foundation. Each exhibition room showcases works from distinct phases of the artist's visual journey. The inviting blue background of the Seventh Paper On Modern Art has primary colours of red and yellow shaped as objects creating a heavy focal point, paired with the whimsy of arches and kinetic sculptural blueprint-like designs. The striking green background featured in the Eight Paper On Modern Art painting has symmetry and harmony, created through drafting line work paired with a perfectly centered downward cone. The cross sections are only visible through the lines spread across the canvas. The eye moves to and from the corners of the painting, seamlessly transitioning from each compartment. The viewer feels the weight of the colours, and the invitation to explore the directional linework left by the artist deliberately with a bold mark of the X in the corner. A labyrinth of indicators and signals, Mir communicates the ephemerality in mathematics through an otherworldly industrial configuration.
Two other artists are also part of the exhibition, Dutch-Jewish painter and composer Sedje Hémon and Afro-Brazilian painter, poet, essayist, dramatist and member of Parliament, Abdias Nascimento. Their interpretations of colour, line and form reveal the visually experimental anchored in personal experiences. The Imran Mir Art Foundation Chair is Nighat Mir, wife of the late artist. The foundation has since created opportunities for emerging talents through the Imran Mir Art Prize, won by artists Ammara Jabbar, Noormah Jamal and Haider Ali Naqvi.
For the first time, a solo presentation of Imran Mir will be accessible to European viewers, providing the chance for intellectual exchanges through cultural inclusion. The exhibition highlights Imran Mir’s exploration of modernism, abstraction and minimalism beyond the confines of western academia. In “What You See Is What You See”, Imran Mir said, “The absence of these rules is what I wish to share with others, so they will not hesitate to reach within themselves and find their real selves”. His foresight for balancing a highly conceptual studio practice along with an ambitious advertising agency is a testimony of the artistic fortitude he possessed throughout his life. His visual methodologies inspire and develop the discourse on identity, philosophy, and sacred geometry. Imran Mir will forever be considered a pioneer and a true modernist of his time.
Imran Mir passed away prematurely, after protracted illness at the age of 64.
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