Abdur Rahman Chughtai (Pakistan, 1894-1975)

Dancing Girl

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private US collection
Purchased directly from the artist by the Nawab of Bahawalpur
Acquired from the above
Thence by descent

In 1911 Abdur Rahman Chughtai joined Mayo School of Art (now known as the National College of Arts, Lahore) where he was taught by Samarendranath Gupta, a pupil of Abanindranath Tagore. Tagore was seen as the founder of the Calcutta based, Bengal School of art. Chughtai has often been affiliated as part of this school however Chughtai himself distanced himself from this association. Chughtai, however, had a very distinctive style, incorporating the art nouveau, Indo-Persian miniature technique and Indian folklore. Although he shared the rejection of the classical European style he felt that Tagore's Bengal School was preoccupied with Hindu religious subject solely and when referencing the miniature tradition ignored that of Persian miniature in favour of Mughal both in content and stylistically. He believed that 'an artist is above prejudice and that he must pay homage to a culture and tradition which is inclusive and hence universal'. (Akbar Naqvi, Image and Identity: Fifty years of Painting and Sculpture in Pakistan, Karachi, 1998, p. 54)

Despite being labelled as 'the first significant modern Muslim artist from South Asia' (Iftikhar Dadi, Modernism and the art of Muslim South Asia, University of North Carolina Press, 2010), in Chughtai's work we can see his respect for the tales of Hindu mythology. In October 2014 Bonhams auctioned a watercolour painting by Chughtai from the same private collection as this particular lot, which depicted Radha and Krishna. This particular work echoes the composition of the Buddhist Ajanta cave paintings. The dancing girl is delicately adorned with jewellery. In her outstretched hand, graceful and fine as is typical of the hands drawn by Chughtai, she holds a lotus flower. The mischievous figure underfoot may be a sadhu ('holy man') or a character of some spiritual importance. Chughtai has demarcated the figure with a halo, a symbol he reserved for sadhus, monks and martyrs. Chughtai employed a wash technique in painting to create depth, in this work we can see the subtlety of hues in the bronze toned work to highlight the skin of the dancer, the dark jagged rocks and the ephemeral glow behind both figures.

Chughtai looked to the complex and varied history of South Asia, to create a modern rendition of these archaic fables. His work is beautifully nostalgic and thus shares some of the longevity of the tales it recounts.
"The only aim of art is that life should thrive. My art is living and will continue to throb with life, so that the land that gave me birth, will be truly immortal."
(S. Kashmira Singh, Chughtai's Indian Paintings, Dhoomi Mal Dharam Das, New Delhi, 1951, p. 7)