When the legendary artist Jimmy Engineer gave me a copy of his book, I was on cloud 9 - having an author’s signed book isn’t a deal to be discounted. A massive tome, I nonetheless I managed to carry it from Karachi airport to Islamabad. This book is a treasure for me. In search of my Master is a biography of the internationally acclaimed artist by renowned writer and art critic Marjorie Husain, edited by S M Shahid and Published by ICCB publishers. Husain has filled the canvas of the book with a colourful array of paintings by Jimmy Engineer from his early days as a struggling artists, to his more recent works as an established artistic mater and prominent humanitarian figure.
Jimmy is one of those artists who have an established name in mural painting, which ultimately became the mark of his fame. An array of mural paintings depicting the terrifying journey of pre and post partition in the Epic series of Partition to Finally home is included in the book.
His magnificent partition series of paintings depict an artist’s sensitivity towards the happenings not only in the present day but also towards events which took place long before his birth. “Jimmy is much more than an artist, he is a campaigner, a crusader, who uses his art to create a more humane world,” said Waqar A Malik, CEO ICI at the book launch.
In another chapter his spiritual experiences are discussed while he was illustrating the Javed-Nama, a tale of the mystic journey of Iqbal accompanied by Molana Rumi.
Jimmy did not confine himself to partition personification only; rather he extended his perspective of work to architectures juxtaposing great structures of historic importance, which nicely combined in later chapters of the book.
From the Freedom series to landscapes, it is astonishing car paint and hard board can be wrought to demonstrate human complications.
The last volume contains memoirs with pictorial glimpses of the artist with significant personalities and with his family. Husain left no stone unturned in covering every facet of Jimmy’s life artfully in this chronicle, including all of his major art works and services to humanity.
