Hyderabad through art

US sculptor Louise Nevelson said, “Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind.” Young artist Kauser Qureshi acts as that creative filter drawing attention to the aesthetics from the streets of Hyderabad, that we may have missed, in her latest art show. As part of the Absolut Art Show that went on display on Friday, the artist captured the glory of old Hyderabad culture with chandeliers that stood as a symbol of the grandiosity of the Nawabi lifestyle; the richness of the laad bazaar and a woman in purdah.

“Yes, there is a sense of nostalgia to the treatment of the city as a subject,” she admits. “It’s the richness of the culture — which is fading — that inspires me to go back to the past,” she says.While the mother of one insists that she loves to paint when she is in the mood for it, Kauser had not more than two weeks to conceptualise and work on her art based on the theme.Nevertheless, the large canvases and prints that went on display showed no rush in the strokes or any gaps that could have been filled better.

Kauser’s body of work mainly includes her favourite medium of charcoal. In the latest series, meanwhile, ink was her medium of choice.“Ever since I was in school, at Nasr, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I took up art as a subject in Class VIII, but my parents were hesitant about me taking up full time arts studies before my degree,” says the graduate of JNTU college.

She later went on to study Masters in London. The current show marked a return to art and her hometown after her marriage and son kept her busy for a while. Now based in Bengaluru, Kauser says working with Absolut has been a “new high in her career”. And why not, considering that the global brand has a long-standing association with art and artists  from Andy Warhol to Picasso.