NAQASHIS AND THE BACKGROUNDS IN CHUGHTAI ART;
GEOMETRICAL PRECISION OF GADGETS AND TRAINING.

Not many artists are prone to being thorough in their art. In all ways M.A. Rahman Chughtai was a complete artist. His very initial training was Naqashi education from his Uncle (Phopha) Baba Miran Baksh, son of Umar Din Naqash. Besides him his two brothers Abdullah and Abdur Raheem were also students there in the Wazir Khan Mosque Lahore. Son of Baba Miran Baksh, Muhammed Hayat Naqash was also a student there, along with many others. Miran Baksh could never realize the extent to which his student will carve a name in Naqashi, but as he died in 1920, he did see his student progress in the art world.

OfCourse Chughtai Sahib did a lot of Naqashi works, but he wanted to add his training in the color paintings itself. To enable that precision in a Wash Color was extremely difficult,  and he required a lot of instruments to make it happen. A first time view of some of them are added to our writing on this blog. And we have given examples from his paintings too. It was strenuous work and at times for routine jobs, he enlisted help of others. But that was merely to repeat the designs he had already started in same. These efforts made great art, even greater in all respects. For inspiration he frequented great Mughal buildings both in Lahore and in Agra, and obviously the Wazir Khan Mosque was a constant reminder of his doings. And for that matter in all ways, he had bought books and engravings of great Naqashi art of the past, as an inspiration for his own work. Even today we find prints of LA ARAB ART in his drawers. But he always added his personal touch to same.