Zahoor ul Akhlaq

Markhor, c. 1980

8′-10″ x 4′-0″

Zahoor ul Akhlaq, who mentored many of the leading artists of today during his time as professor at the National College of Arts, helped open the path for the reconsideration of traditional forms, such as miniature painting, as contemporary practice.  This melding of tradition and innovation can also be seen in his lesser-known sculptural public artworks, which cannily employ geometry as vocabulary of both historical Islamic aesthetics and modern abstraction.  His Markhor represents the country’s national animal as a design composed of diamond-shaped units, with the goat’s distinctive screw horns present as symmetrical arabesques.  The piece testifies to Akhlaq’s concern for the country’s distinctive built and natural environment.