To analyse, if not judge, works of art two factors are primarily taken into account: content and technique. If the technique does not complement or enhance the content, the artwork comes across as amateurish; and if the subject matter fails to measure up to the skill applied to propagate it, then the effort more often than not appears to be hard to place. It’s when the two gel together to create something startling that art seems purposeful. Ali Azmat has an uncanny ability to make his method and madness speak with one voice. His work entitled ‘Moorat’ displayed at Canvas Gallery, Karachi, suggested so quite convincingly.

Azmat has tackled (or perhaps felt) the subjects of gender and relationships in very sensitive yet unequivocal terms. I don’t know the artist, nor am I aware of his previous work, but do I need to? The reason I broached this subject is that you don’t have to be familiar with the artist personally to like his or her art. Azmat’s acrylic-on-canvas pieces catch the eye for they are about human beings and for human beings. There’s a perceptible element of extending personal concerns (opinions, views, etc.) into matters of societal import, but he does it in a fashion that makes you forget the artist and get riveted on the art.

The characters in his work have individualised predicaments but they relate to society as a whole. There are many important topics that are often swept under the carpet in our country. Ali Azmat won’t let you do that. Look at his creation ‘Attitude 2’, the upturned middle finger says more than it suggests. Take me as I am or leave me. Better still, you can’t do anything about it, can you?

‘The situation’ series takes his art to a different level. He paints the human body not with precision in mind, but with contours and texture that indicate nakedness isn’t always worth gaping at.

A lot can be said about colours. But with solid (colour) background the foreground portrays the subject with its intrinsic frailties that can only be associated with human beings.

Keep thinking with the paintbrush.