Anwar Jalal Shemza (

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and later the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. Despite being better known as an artist, Shemza published several

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

s and books of poetry in the 1950s and wrote plays performed on Radio Pakistan. Shemza was initially influenced by

Modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

most notably

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

although later works also showed a traditional

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic influence. He was also an accomplished printmaker, having his work exhibited at the International Print Biennial in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Early life and career

Shemza was born Anwar Jalal Butt into a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

family in

Shimla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, List of renamed Indian cities and states#Himachal Pradesh, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the States and union territories of India, northern Indian state of Himachal Prade ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, in 1928. His grandfather owned a carpet business in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

while his father Khaja Butt was a

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

. He was educated in schools in Shimla,

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 Indian census, 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the ...

and Lahore. While he studied

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Punjab University Punjab University may refer to: India * Punjab Agricultural University, a state agricultural university in Ludhiana, Punjab * I. K. Gujral Punjab Technical University, a State university in Jalandhar, Punjab * Panjab University, a public collegia ...

in 1943, he switched to art in the following year, enrolling at the Mayo School of Art and obtaining a diploma in 1947.

Pakistani artist and writer

In 1947, Anwar Shemza opened the Shemza Commercial Art Studio in Lahore and adopted the name Anwar Jalal Shemza. He quickly became a leading figure in Pakistan's cultural life. Shemza was the editor of ''Ehsas'', a magazine on art and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

. He published seven novels in Urdu most notably ''Sotey jagtey'' published in 1957 as well as poetry such as Kissa kahani (Folk tales and stories) from 1954. Radio Pakistan broadcast his plays. Shemza was a leading member of a modernist group called the Lahore Art Circle. His early works showed a distinct geometric structure. He studied at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and gained a diploma of fine art from

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

. In 1960, he obtained a scholarship from the British Council to study printmaking with

Anthony Gross Anthony Imre Alexander Gross (19 March 1905 – 8 September 1984) was a British printmaking, printmaker, painter, British official war artists, war artist and film director of Hungarian-Jewish, Italian, and Anglo-Irish descent.Thomas, Ro ...

for another year. While in Britain, he married English artist Mary Katrina.

British career

Shemza and his wife returned to Pakistan at first but they moved to Mary Katrina's hometown of

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in 1962. He worked as an arts teacher at Ounsdale High School between 1962 and 1979 and at Weston Road High School as head of art and design between 1979 and 1985. It was while teaching at Ounsdale in 1966 that Shemza's daughter Tasveer, aged six, designed one of Britain's first series of Christmas stamps. Tazveer’s design, featuring one of the

Magi Magi (; singular magus ; from Latin ''magus'', cf. fa, مغ ) were priests in Zoroastrianism and the earlier religions of the western Iranians. The earliest known use of the word ''magi'' is in the trilingual inscription written by Darius th ...

, was chosen by eight professional stamp designers from 5,000 entries in a ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'' competition. In England, Shemza started to incorporate

ic themes into his work. His ''Meem'' series of the 1960s was based on the first letter of the prophet

Mohammed Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...

's name. His ''Roots'' series started in the 1970s and showed imaginary plants and roots derived from

script below, while his

silkscreen Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

''The Page'' from 1984 showed Arabic

letters Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...

in illegible patterns. Exhibitions of Shemza's works were held in London, Durham,

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

, and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. The ''Roots'' exhibition toured Pakistan after his death from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 1985. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.

Legacy

Anwar Shemza's artworks are held in many public collections including the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

(Oxford, UK),

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is a planned art museum, to be located in Saadiyat Island cultural district in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Upon completion, it is planned to be the largest of the Guggenheim museums. Architect Frank Gehry designed th ...

(UAE),

Lahore Museum The Lahore Museum ( pa, ; ur, ; ''"Lahore Wonder House"'') is a museum located in Lahore, Pakistan. Founded in 1865 at a smaller location and opened in 1894 at its current location on The Mall, Lahore, The Mall in Lahore during the British Ra ...

(Lahore, Pakistan), Pakistan National Council of the Arts (Islamabad, Pakistan),

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

(New York, USA), Sharjah Art Foundation (UEA),

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

(London, UK), His granddaughter, Aphra Shemza, is a

multimedia art Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

ist. In 2020, she launched an Arts Council-funded project ''shemza.digital'', featuring her grandfather's 1962 painting ''One to Nine and One to Seven''.

References

External links

Anwar Shemza website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shemza, Anwar 1928 births 1985 deaths People from Shimla 20th-century Pakistani painters 20th-century English painters 20th-century English educators University of the Punjab alumni National College of Arts alumni Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Urdu-language short story writers Pakistani dramatists and playwrights Pakistani emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Pakistani people of Kashmiri descent English people of Kashmiri descent English male painters English printmakers Urdu-language writers from Pakistan Urdu-language novelists Pakistani calligraphers Pakistani Muslims Kashmiri writers 20th-century English male artists