Born in 1899, Pakistan; he comes from a family
which for generations has produced architects,
engineers, painters and decorators.
His individual style was formed in the years
before 1947, so the main body of his work was
produced before Pakistan was born: Persian and
Mongol Traditional Style
Chughtai admitted himself to Lahore's Mayo School
of Art, which then emphasized crafts more than
art. He did not stay there very long and started
learning on his own, concentrating on the
traditional methods and techniques of Mongol
artists. Then, he moved on to Calcutta and worked
there foe several years, painting in Bengal School
Style.
By 1923, when he was only 24, he started
developing his style of drawing luscious, languid,
narcissus-eyes and stylized figures with erotic
overtones and heavy with fictional contents.
He also introduced him to some of Western art
techniques, chiefly as practiced by Victorian
artists, and to the cave painting of Ajanta, which
were then in process of being re-discovered by
contemporary painters.
It was in formative phase of his career that
Chughtai imbibed certain stylization and
mannerism, including extensive use of
architectural motifs and pictorial nuances, which
mark his illustrational paintings of this period.
In 1927, Chughtai published Muraqqa, his
first major work, which comprised a series of
illustrations he made for new edition of the
thought-heavy and highly imaginative verses of
Ghalib, 19th century " poet's poet" of
Urdu and Persian.
Early in the thirties Chughtai visited Europe,
researching on painting; also did a few years
later.
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