It was only the seventh year since the Department of Fine Arts was founded at the University of Punjab Lahore, when he conquered the first generation of Pakistani artists at a serious academic level after independence in 1947.
The atmosphere was outlandish after nine decades of monarchical British rule and Lahore, crucibles of different cultures and ethnic groups, was a city of opportunities for young Muslim men and women in terms of work and education. The visual arts department, which was once primarily attracted by Hindu and Christian girls, then began to entertain Muslim girls-students. In those years, Anna Molka Ahmad, a British born and educated young artist and academician, sought to strengthen the foundations of academic art in Pakistan. Anna Malka struggled to promote various Western techniques and genres in a visual culture where miniature painting was a popular artistic forte.
In 1947, Mrs. Anwar Afzal, the first teacher of Islam, joined this department to support the lonely efforts of Anna Molka Ahmad. Later, Zakkia Malik Sheikh, Nasim Hafiz Kazi and Razza Feroz also served this institution as teachers for the development and assimilation of the Western canon of aesthetics with a local convention. This became a very critical period in the visual doctrine of Lahore, which was to shape the future visual idioma of art in Pakistan.
Radzia Feroz is one of these artists who accepted this picture not only as an academic achievement, but also as a means that could serve her to express philosophy and ideology in relation to and about life. Ratstsia was born in 1925 in Shahpur, Punjab, and she arrived in Lahore with her parents in 1927 in infancy. However, the visual impression of the village of Shahpur remained part of its subconscious and was often expressed in her paintings with tall and elegantly dressed villagers, as the figures of her canvas and the agricultural environment as a background.
Dr. Ferozuddin was a doctor and had a special affectionate relationship with his youngest daughter; Razzia. Dr. Feroz encouraged the early drawings and paintings of her daughter, sat for hours in her model. Her father's feelings for the sick, poor and needy patients greatly influenced Radzia, and Florence Nightingale, the legendary icon in the field of nursing, became her first inspiration and ideal. Since childhood, Razzia had health problems, which was an obstacle to many of her dreams, and she had to adjust her academic goals again and again. In 1943, she graduated from Kinnaird College in Lahore and continued to study in a magistracy in geography, but, despite her poor health, she could not continue this degree, and this company was in smoking.
She describes this experience as:
“I was very disappointed and felt hopeless. It was this disappointment that made me more adept, and then turned all my love and affection towards something that never became wrong and always was a sincere friend and companion. ”
(Ahmad p. 09)
From the age of three, Radzia drew and wrote as instinctively how a child can be. The lost effort for the Master in Geography was a turning point in her life, and then she believed that her hobby was seriously preparing for the university art exam, which she took with BA in 1947. At that time, she met Anna Molka Ahmad, who invited her to join the department of visual arts for a diploma after graduating from the university in the field of visual arts. At that time, Ratsziya was afraid of her poor health and the unsatisfied efforts of her life, which in fact made her subordinate and indecisive to overestimate her ambitions and goals. Nevertheless, the permanent council and leadership of Anna Molkoi Ahmad made Ratsu think. Anna Malka recommended Radzia to read Adrian Hill's “Art against Disease” in her quest to transcend the difficulties associated with achieving her goals. Finally, in 1949, Ratszia joined the Department of Fine Arts to be listed along with the first generation of post-Pakistani artists. She completed her diploma in 1950, and the following year she was offered to teach in the department of visual arts.
Rajia found peace and strength in art and overcame the shortcomings of his life, completely indulging in various genres of art, such as painting and modeling. She found answers to her philosophical and logical teaching about life and came up with a righteous doctrine for her life to continue optimistically. In her own words:
“Art is life, and life is art for me. Art is an unknown source that inspires life for me to live and draw humanity in all its moods and colors. I want to paint the suffering of humanity with all the bright colors and hide the sufferings, pains and hunger under the coat of eternal glance too much ... This is the mission of my life and the purpose of my life of ideas that cherish me ... "
(Ahmad, p. 13)
The art of Razizia is simple with the simplicity of the technique, as well as with the theme. Her imaginative and landscape paintings are rooted in the pastoral life of Punjab, where she opened her eyes, and her modeling is under the academic influence of institutional art. We cannot find her work innovative or revolutionary, but the contribution she made with her commitment and perseverance is vital for the formation of the early years of art in Pakistan.
Recommendations:
• Anna Molka Ahmad. Razzia Feroz: Monograph number three. Lahore: University of Punjab, 1954.
• Catalog exhibition Lahore Art Circle Group 1955. Lahore: 1955.
• Exhibition of a group of catalogs in the department of visual arts in 1954. Lahore: University of Punjab, 1954.
