Rhapsody In Colour : A Journey Through the Mastery of Ahmed Parvez

VM Art Gallery is delighted to present ‘Rhapsody in Colour: A Journey Through the Mastery of Ahmed Parvez’.

Ahmed Parvez (1926–1979) remains one of the most distinctive voices in modernist art history in Pakistan. His career unfolded over three decades marked by exile, experimentation, emotional extremes, and ultimately, artistic independence. This exhibition traces the arc of Parvez's creative evolution through his journeys across Pakistan, London, New York, and back again.

Born in Rawalpindi, Parvez left a conventional path to apprentice with his artist uncle, Jacobus Michael, in Lahore in 1952. Steeped in Western classical training, he soon broke away to forge a fiercely personal language of abstraction—lyrical, expressive, and unrestrained. His works exude boldness, dynamic movement, and, simply put, raw emotion.

Through decades of travel and turmoil, triumph and disenchantment, Parvez remained a painter for whom life and art were inseparable. His creative journey is a chronicle of reinvention, each chapter erupting from the last as form dissolved into feeling and control gave way to expression. The works presented here chart not only a stylistic evolution but also a poetic autobiography in colour.