
Priya Singh
Head of Department
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£2,000 - £3,000
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Head of Department

Cataloguer
Provenance
Property from a private collection, Karachi.
Acquired from the Framers Gallery.
Ahmed's practice is rooted in a nuanced dialogue between classical Western art and the rich visual traditions of South Asian miniature painting. His 2011 work, Untitled (Woman), exemplifies this synthesis, drawing formal and thematic inspiration from iconic Western works such as Velázquezs', Rokeby Venus. Ahmed reimagines the reclining nude, a canonical motif in European art history, through the intricate, jewel-like detailing characteristic of miniature painting, imbuing the figure with both delicacy and a meditative intensity.
In Untitled (Woman), the familiar pose is transformed: the soft curves of the figure are outlined and the surrounding space is rendered in a compressed, ornamental perspective that recalls the refined surfaces of Mughal and Persian miniatures. By juxtaposing these disparate visual languages, Ahmed interrogates ideas of gaze, femininity, and artistic lineage, inviting viewers to consider the intersection of global art histories and the ways in which cultural context shapes representation.
This work exemplifies Ahmed's broader oeuvre, in which historical references, cross-cultural visual vocabularies, and meticulous craftsmanship converge, creating images that are at once reverent, innovative, and quietly subversive.