An article by Mian Naeem

Mansoor Aye, a Karachi based artist, has put on display his artifacts at the Croweaters Art Gallery. He started his career in the 60's as a water colour painter, but switched over to oil and acrylics and the traits of a water colour painter are still evident in his works. The works on display are abstract paintings, using oil paint and acrylics on a low textured canvas.
The show comprises a series of nineteen 'untitled' paintings. In one of the works, he composes two female portraits in profile. The quickly drawn outline drawings, in orange and yellow, overlap each other. They seem looking at a circular object, entering from the right side of the horizontal composition. An almost straight diagonal line is intersecting the two faces. The wavy lines, created by using some hard tool, suggest the form of the hair. The background is simple and flat, but at a few points, a tonal variation is created by lifting wet thin paint from the surface.
In another painting, he repeats the outline drawing in such a way that it resembles a shaky image, exposed by a slow shutter speed of a camera. This abstract female face is also looking at a circular object at the right edge of the horizontal composition. The background is painted blue and green.
He repeats the segment of a circular shape in another composition. The outline drawing of a female looking down in a submissive way is the focal point of the painting. He places the circular object on the top left corner of the vertical composition and creates a variety of textures by lifting and scratching wet paint from the surface of the canvas. He paints images of birds in a few of his works. The simplified drawings of birds are executed using geometric lines. The background is created using washes of thin paint. In some of these works, he draws the outline of female faces and leaves the rest of the canvas blank to enhance the visual impact of the quickly drawn sketch.
In most of his works, he uses thin washes of paint, like a water colour painter. Using a smooth canvas, he creates a variation in colours and textures by wiping out wet paint from the surface. His palette is rich and he frequently uses radiant and bright colours which evoke joy, in contrast to the outline drawings of gloomy and distorted female faces. Brushstrokes are rare or used in such a way that they lose their identity.
There is a lot of repetition in the works and he has been painting the same face for decades. The features are stylised and the forehead is connected to the nose through a straight line, ignoring the bridge between them. There is a lack of content and visual depth in these works. Most of them look like rapidly executed bits of mass production.