Downtown’s Family into Art from three Generation
In Srinagar’s downtown, a family has been into art for decades from generation to generation. From voice artist to painting- Zargar family thinks passion for art is khandani inheritance and it will pass on. The journey of Art started in Zargar’s family back in the 1950s when a woman in their family irrespective of all the odds came out and pursued her passion for art. The following generation in her followed her path.
In Zoon Dab’s (Moon Oriel) famous Radio show she got the role of mother Aage bhay and the show continued for 19 years without a single break. Maryam Begum of the Zargar family used to wear abaya and leave for the Radio station for recording. “Back then working in radio as a voice artist for my mother was very challenging but my father was very supportive”, said Zahoor son of Maryam. Kashmiri remains glued to the radio and listened to every episode of Zoon Dab, the show used to focus on social and economic issues. The characters of the show got fame and when Maryam’s relative came to know about her association with the show, her relative stopped visiting her. But her husband backed him all the time. She went to villages for her recordings and people used to follow her like some celebrity. “On the streets, kids used to chase me and shouting Aage bhayi hyund neechuv” recalls Zahoor such was her work that people knew her from the character which she was playing. Not only Zoon Dab but she was voice artists for the different radio shows. In 1974 she was awarded the Padma Shri award for her work.
Zahoor back then a kid used to follow her mother to the recording room which later on shaped his journey. Surrounded by artists “I came to know about the various opportunity” which helped me to pursue art and academics.
Zahoor Ahmed Zargar, 69, in the art field popularly known as Zargar Zahoor started painting at the age of 15. In the drawing class in School Zahoor took the brush and now in his late 60’s he still paints in his studio for up to 16-17 hours. The first painting was “the landscape on the shoes which I forced my parents to buy for wearing but I actually wanted to paint that landscape.” It was never easy like his mother to pursue art. Back in his childhood painting was not pursued and “my maternal uncle used to beat me for this, but I still used to draw”. In S.P College too Zahoor was ruthlessly beaten up by the teacher because “I draw the portrait of my friend on board,” still, now Zahoor asks himself what he did wrong. In 1971 with the recommendation from Ghulam Muhammad Sadiq, Zahoor got a scholarship at the University of Baroda. After completing graduation Zahoor wanted to do Masters, with his mother’s support he did Masters in Visualization and became the first from Kashmir who had done masters in visualization. In Baroda Zahoor had the fortune to work under the stalwarts of Indian art including Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh, Jeram Patel and K.G Subramanyam.
“I spent 30 years in Jamia Millia” joined the institution as a lecturer and retired as the Dean of Fine Arts. After serving two years in IMFA Kashmir and three years in Jammu, applied in Jamia Millia, being only Masters in Visualization Zahoor had the edge and was selected without having second thoughts. With the workload on the campus, Zahoor used to paint at night to feed his artistic cravings and eventually took part in the exhibitions, and gave demos before thousands of students. “With producing a lot of work Zahoor learned the language of art and almost at 70 feels “I can now truly paint.”
Zahoor has participated in more than 50 exhibitions and the first exhibition for him was in France and in that very exhibition people bought about a dozen of his work and “it really encouraged me.” In China, Zahoor gave the demo of the landscape on 5/7 ft canvas before thousands of audiences. In 2014 a King of Saudi invited Zahoor on exhibition for marking and the suggestion for their newly Fine Arts Department. The World Bank has also bought Zahoor’s work. In 2013 parliament house felicitated Zahoor for the portrait of Bipin Chandra Paul, which is still hanging in the parliament.
“It is a language of colors, lines, forms, and shapes,” said Zahoor while looking to the canvas on which he was currently working on. Zahoor believes, in painting, it is important to create an atmosphere and to get things on the canvas from the subconscious. “The 2016 turmoil is all over in my work,” said Zahoor while flipping the stack of the canvas.
After 30 years Zahoor came to his homeland Kashmir, and wants to spend the rest of his life painting in his studio and sharing his art lesson with other Kashmiri artists. In Kashmir, there are four seasons and it is food for the artists because everything around keeps changing and inspires artists. Zahoor believes “where Human expression is contained, art plays a great role to vent out things or express freely or what is called Art Therapy.”
On Art therapy, Zahoor’s nephew Adil has worked in Kashmir with an Art Therapist Dena Lawrence who had come all the way from Australia to teach art therapy in Kashmir. And for Adil too “like food, art is important for survival.”
Zargar Adil Ahmad, 35, is a Ph.D in linguistics but also a painter –the artist in the third generation of the Zargar family. Adil believes “machines does not understand the expression” and the traditional way of doing the painting is different “stroking brush on the canvas is the form of the expression which gives relief and it is very important for people like us living in the conflict zone.”
From Childhood Adil used to observe Uncle’s work closely and used to sit with him during the painting sessions. As a child, it had an impact on Adil’s mind and during the 2008 unrest “I took the brush and started painting.” Adil usually paints a landscape and believes “the color scheme depicts the situation around artist what is going around him.”
Adil learned from his Uncle about know-how and style of painting and 2011 conducted a solo exhibition in Kashmir. Up to now Adil has worked upon more than 200 art pieces and exhibited his work in Australia where people bought his work. Adil said, “the aim of the artist is not to create for the sake of selling but for the sake of art only. “For guidance, Adil does not only relies on his uncle but visits occasionally artist like MA Mehboob (It is known as the famous artist MF Hussain visited MA Mehboob at his residence in Kashmir).
Like his Uncle, Adil works specifically on landscapes and said “in the landscape, I express freely and create environments, figures steal the attention of the viewer.” Inspired by the nature Adil also observes the color scheme of the works of Picasso, Van Gogh, and Monnet as these have also produced Landscapes too.
In 2019 and 2020 Adil was planning for an exhibition but due to the situation could not happen. “There is no such art gallery here in Kashmir to exhibit your work,” such spaces are important to share work, and artists get inspired by each other.
“People don’t have a thing here for the art” and art therapy is a rare concept here. Valley being the most affected when it comes to mental health, Adil wants to contribute from his side and educate people about art therapy.
Both Uncle and Nephew believe “Kashmir is now understanding art and its importance in the society.” They do not follow any art movement but in Zahoor’s work, the influence of the impressionist and expressionist movement can be seen.
Maryam Begum left in the year 1998 and “it is from her we Uncle and Nephew got inspired”. The artistic journey of the duo continues while Zahoor wakes every day to paint and Adil packs his colors and canvas to paint the landscape of Kashmir.
Adil Amin Akhoon