THE ESTATE OF ZAHOOR UL AKLAQ
1941-1999, IndiaZahoor ul Akhlaq (b.1941, Delhi-d.1999, Lahore.) Lived and worked in Toronto and Lahore) played a seminal role in the conceptual dialogue with Indian and Persian manuscript painting. Subtle shifts in perspective and scale and a play with margins are a nod to miniature painting. These innovations are juxtaposed with the contemporary influence of two central art movements of the 1960s: pop art and colour field painting. By the 1970s, Zahoor had begun to experiment with the three-dimensional forms of sculpture and architecture, adopting the grid, which was a construct embedded in both Islamic geometry and international modernism. An artist and teacher, affiliated with the National College of Art in Lahore, he is acknowledged as a singular influence on the current generation of artists from Pakistan.
Zahoor ul Akhlaq received a diploma in fine art at the National College of Arts, Lahore in 1962 and completed postgraduate studies at Hornsey College of Arts, London in 1967 and at the Royal College of Art, London in 1969. He was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship for Post Doctoral Studies, Yale University, Connecticut.
His work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group shows, including Art Mill Museum, Doha (2024); Lahore Biennale 03 (2024); Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Wales (2023); Lahore Biennale 01 (2018); Frieze New York, New York (2016); Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah (2014); Asia Society, New York (2009-10); Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (2006); 47th Venice Biennale (1997).
Akhlaq has received numerous public commissions, including Maritime Museum, Karachi (1997); Indus Valley School of Art and Design, Karachi (1992); Aga Khan Foundation, MIT Cambridge, Massachusetts (1979).
His work forms part of significant public collections, including Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Bibliotheque Royale, Brussels; British Council Collection; Hiroshima Museum, Hiroshima; Tate Modern, London, and Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Courtesy Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai.
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