Mian Ijaz ul Hassan, like the monasteria creepers which populate his paintings, grows on you. Be with him for some time, and you will find the tendrils of his friendliness coil gently around you until it becomes difficult to hake him off.
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I have known Ijaz for over forty years now, since our earliest school days at Aitchison College, when we were both students of Khalid Iqbal. You can tell, can’t you, which one of us was the more attentive pupil. Later we met in London while Ijaz was at Cambridge, and then in 1966 we re-established contact again here in Lahore, At the time Ijaz was teaching Academics at the National College of Arts ad I was un unemployed Chartered Accountant subsidizing the Lahore Museum by Cataloguing their collection of miniature paintings. Since then we have remained in close touch, and I have been totally and willingly enveloped by his growing stature as a painter and now as an author, until I have become, as you can see, rooted to a spot next to him.
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But it not about the adhesive qualities of Ijaz as a friend that I wish to discuss him today. Nor do I propose to talk about Ijaz as a painter, for I am too dazzled by the sheer brilliance of his palette to comment coherently about that aspect of his work. I cannot discuss his technical virtuosity, for I, as a non-painter, am too overawed by the sheer mastery of his technique. Nor, to be honest, am I qualified to explore the intensity of his political beliefs, for being a political agnostic myself, I admire anyone who has the strength to believe. Ijaz’s qualities as a painter, as a designer-craftsman and as a political activist are all vital and inseparable components of an integrated personality. They are already familiar to most of us.
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On this specific occasion, I would like to pay tribute to another facet of Ijaz’s work, to his latest contribution to art, the bound product of which is being formally launched today --- his book on ‘Painting in Pakistan’.
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Ijaz is a painter and it must have required much courage on his part to turn himself into an art-historian, particularly in documenting the work and appreciating the styles of his fellow artists. To be an art-historian by profession is to understand some of the demands and rigors of the job. To be an art-historian by choice is to invite pain. In its extremist form, it is akin to a form of self-torture. To use a contemporary expression, it can be the mother of martyrdoms.
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What does being an art-historian entail, and if it is like mountain-climbing, for example, so fraught with danger and so painfully punishing, why does anyone attempt it at all? Simply because the subject like the mountain just happens to be there? These are questions I felt deserved to be addressed today within the context of Ijaz ul Hassan’s prodigious effort in scaling the heights of scholarship.
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To me important pre-requisites for any art-historian are the qualities of will and tenacity. He or she must have the dedication and commitment to complete what they have once started. No more than a mountaineer can think of climbing down a precipice mid-height can a dedicated art-historian admit defeat by turning back half-way. They must preserve until the end is not only in sight but the summit is secure beneath their feet.
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Another vital element is the spirit of detached enquiry. He should be interested in the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake – not because it is fashionable, not because it is the done thing. He should certainly not pursue a subject because he expects to get something out of it. There are no lollipops at the top of mount Everest. The quest itself is the real reward.
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His judgments should be fair and dispassionate. There is nothing as stale as a dated opinion nor is there anything as unpalatable to a reader than a over-spiced opinion.If an art-historian wishes to impart information, he should also be prepared to learn and to absorb it. And that can be a trying tedious process, for there is not shortcut to learning just as there is no natural shortcut to any summit worth conquering.
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A mountain, as every mountaineer discovers, is not simply a mountain but a microcosm of nature, an ecological system within itself. It harbours birds, butterflies, trees, flowers, wild animals, even sometimes an abominable snowman. This latter species by the way I can confirm does exist. In the upper inaccessible reaches of art-history, they are known as art critics.
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To be a good mountaineer is therefore to be half a naturalist. Similarly every art-historian, if he is to do justice to his subject and to be a cogent influence, must necessarily broaden the scope of his research in his chosen subject. He must widen the iris of his perception and provide, if he is to give rounded presentation of his subject, as much supplementary data and information as is reasonable and justifiable without seeming to pad out his work. To write only about his subject is to offer a singular dimension – flat, shallow and without depth.
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And finally, having had the will, the tenacity, the keenness, the detachment, the learning and, if he is lucky, the good fortune to succeed, every art-historian should have the humility to recognize that his or her subject, like the conquered mountain, is and will always be bigger than the ever could aspire to be.
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Ijaz ul Hassan’s pioneering work on ‘Painting in Pakistan’ has been the expedition of a lifetime. He began it many years ago and has pursued his objective with a commendable perservance. He has overcome the odds of indifference and hostility, of insensitive discouragement and unfeeling criticism. The important thing though is tat he has accomplished something undeniably significant. In doing so he has established something of a trail for others to follow.
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He did not achieve all this on his own. He could not have got here today without the aid and help of many very dedicated and self-less sherpas who shared his load. I am thinking particularly of his wife Musarrat Hassan – a historian in her own right and whose work on colonial influences in art of the Punjab, I suspect she put on the back burner of their family stove. Now that Ijaz’s magnum opus is out, we are all looking forward to her future publication with interest.
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Another person who bore his separate share of the burden deserves in my opinion special appreciation. I refer here to Mr. Zaheer Salam of Ferozesons Ltd. (the publishers of ‘Painting in Pakistan’). His interest in a subject unfamiliar to the book-trade and his determination to publish, even at the risk of being demand for consorting with artists – turned – authors, has been an act of singular courage and foresight. His enterprise will hopefully encourage other publishers to venture into such undertakings, just as Ijaz’s book should be a source of encouragement to other closet-authors into revealing their specialized interests and, if we as a readership are lucky, disclosing their dormant manuscripts.
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Launching Ijaz ul Hassan’s ‘Painting in Pakistan’ here is a particularly moving occasion for me, as it is I am sure for Ijaz. Shakir was the guiding hand assisting my own first tentative steps into research into the art-history of the Punjab and of the city of Lahore. And it was during Shakir’s principalship at the National College that Ijaz began the journey that has brought him back twenty-five years later, back to Shakir’s last home. For me, as I am sure for all of you here this afternoon. There could not have been a more fitting location, the home of that Himalaya amongst artists - Shakir Ali - for launching Ijaz ul Hassan’s Himalayan achievement, his book on ‘Painting in Pakistan’.
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