Naveed Bhat
Kulgam: Nothing is fine with the Fine Arts. The professionals in the stream possessing graduate and post graduate degrees in fine arts are struggling to get jobs. They have been crying hoarse to get attention of the government for putting measures in place to get them employed.
However, apart from graduates and postgraduates in Fine Arts, we have many artists in the valley who have the natural ability to capture and communicate the happenings around us – be it conflict, social or political – through their drawings and paintings. This segment of talented artists struggles to get a platform to exhibit their talent. Among this lot, there are some artists who despite all hurdles crawl to get noticed for their work in Fine Arts.
INS talked to one such artist who has been able to survive his passion of exploring the power art.
Hailing from Kulpora village in Kulgam district, 23-year-old Mudasir Rehman Dar (Pen name Shahid Mudasir) doesn’t possess any professional degree in fine arts, but his God given talent in drawing and painting life has at least given him name and fame in the south Kashmir. He has initiated a series of abstract paintings and portraits and is today considered one among the well-known artists and painters of Kashmir.
In conversation with the INS, Mudasir said, “I consider my art as a God gift talent for me, because despite having a poor family background I struggled a lot to survive as an artist. I commenced the journey of my art work from to fill the blank papers with my naively sketched dots and lines since my childhood. The habit of sketching lines developed in me with every passing day. Unfortunate after completing my matriculation I could not continue my studies. Poor financial resources at home forced me to take to casual menial jobs. This way I supported my family and at the same time, I continued to invested a few bucks to explore the power of art in me.”
While drawing some conflict situation, Mudasir got noticed not only by general public, but also by the government authorities. It was in 2016 turmoil he shot into prominence when his sketch of Hizb commander Burhan Wani went viral on the social media. For this, as told by Mudasir, he faced the wrath of government agencies and was harassed for almost one year for drawing the sketch of the slain commander.
“I tried to justify my stand about the painting, but all my justifications went in vain before the government forces,” he said.
During the period, he took to sketch the portraits of local mainstream politicians and other well-known famous personalities. But this time he faced criticism of the local netizens. This forced him to shift to abstract art. He now believes that his eccentricity into the art of abstract has given him a leeway to select whatever he wants to, without inviting wrath from anyone .
“Being a native of conflict ridden society I could not resist myself from depicting the ongoing bloodshed and violence in my paintings in one or other way. I realized that I have to do it in a way that only the few artistic inclinations could understand my art,” says Mudasir.
To depict the killings of seven persons who died in a blast last year at an encounter site in Laroo area of Kulgam, Mudasir voiced the incident by sketching a painting of ‘faceless girl hanging on to a jacket, while a stretcher nearby is smeared with blood.’ Using the power of art to express and protest against the bloodshed in the valley won him commendation across sections of society.
But this promising artist has lack of resources which has not only hindered his art but has also constricted his prospects substantially. “I am saving some amount from my meager earnings in order to buy the expensive raw materials to carry on my art,” he said. He was recently invited to be a part of exhibition in Delhi, but couldn’t make it for want of financial support.
“I was briefly employed on contractual basis for a project to teach art classes and aware the students about art against a little remuneration. But this opportunity too was snatched from me without any reason,” he says.
To meet his daily ends Mudasir started again to go for menial jobs at odd places but at the same time continued to paint during evening. Even as he has been recognized with several awards and certificates and was declared ‘Artist of the District’ in 2017, he feels himself deprived of the government support and terms it administrative negligence on part of the government.
Remarkably, Information department, Kulgam, exhibited his paintings and was granted with a certificate by World Art Museum in 2018 for his abstract art.
(Edited by Zia Darakshan)
