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Anwar Jalal Shemza was born in Simla, India, in 1928, and attended the Mayo School of Art (now the National College of Arts) in Lahore, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in art, before enrolling at the Slade School of Art, London in 1956. While living in London he exhibited his works at Gallery One alongside F.N. Souza and Avinash Chandra, and also had solo shows at Gallery One in 1960 and at the influential New Visions Centre in...
Anwar Jalal Shemza was born in Simla, India, in 1928, and attended the Mayo School of Art (now the National College of Arts) in Lahore, where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in art, before enrolling at the Slade School of Art, London in 1956. While living in London he exhibited his works at Gallery One alongside F.N. Souza and Avinash Chandra, and also had solo shows at Gallery One in 1960 and at the influential New Visions Centre in 1958.

Shemza is one of Pakistan’s most well known modern artists, in addition to being a poet and playwright. A leading member of an artists’ collective known as the Lahore Art Circle, Shemza’s work fused Western principles of modernism with those of traditional Islamic art forms. His works show great attention to geometry and perspective, with strong verticals and horizontals highlighted by his choice of palette. Also a talented printmaker, Shemza produced an important series of paintings and graphic works based on traditional calligraphy as well.

Shemza exhibited widely and internationally including at the 6th Triennial of World Art, New Delhi, in 1956; the 5th Exhibition of International Prints, Moderna Galerija, Ljubiana, in 1963; Graphische Sammlung, Vienna, in 1963; Treasures from the Commonwealth at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 1965; the 6th International Print Biennial, Tokyo, in 1968; the 1st British International Drawing Biennial, Teeside Art Gallery, in 1973 (where he was a Major Prize recipient); the Other Story at Hayward Gallery, London, in 1989-90; Printmakers of Pakistan at Bradford City Art Gallery & Museum, in 1997-98; Typo at Ikon, Birmingham, 1999-2000; and Pakistan Another Vision at the Centre of Contemporary Art, Glasgow, in 2000.

Selected solo shows of Shemza’s work include those at the Pakistan National Council of the Arts, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Lahore, in 1960-2; the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, Durham, in 1963; the Commonwealth Institute, Edinburgh, in 1969; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, in 1972; Indus Gallery, Karachi, in 1985; Manchester Metropolitan University, in 1992; and the Birmingham City Museum, in 1997-8.

Shemza died in Stafford, UK, in 1985.

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