Renowned Pakistani artist Jimmy Engineer makes goodwill visit to Sri Lanka

Saturday, 24 November 2012 00:02 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The world-renowned Pakistani artist, social worker, philanthropist and stamp designer Jimmy Engineer is currently paying a goodwill visit to Sri Lanka to promote people to people contacts between the two friendly countries through his art.

Jimmy Engineer delivered a talk to the Pakistani community living in Sri Lanka at the Pakistan High Commission Colombo on 21 November 2012. In his brief remarks, Jimmy identified himself as a disciple of the Great Master and spoke of the spiritual connection that drives him to serve Pakistan as an artist.

“All my life I’ll remain a pupil and I’ll never become a master,” he said to a round of applause at the Pakistan High Commission. Jimmy said that he regarded his art creations as a God-given gift.

Highlighting the background of painting on huge canvasses, Jimmy Engineer, who was born in a Parsi family of Loralai, Balochistan, in 1954, said it was just to acknowledge the sacrifices of people during the Pakistan Movement.

Jimmy Engineer said that in early 1970s, he had started having bad dreams of bloodshed and violence and accordingly he had drawn several big paintings depicting various aspects of the Muslim sufferings and sacrifices while migrating at the time of partition to their new motherland-Pakistan that they had achieved in 1947.

Speaking on the occasion the High Commissioner of Pakistan in Sri Lanka H.E Seema Ilahi Baloch said that Mr. Jimmy Engineer’s compassion for the people and his passion for his work makes him an ideal ambassador for Pakistan when he visits and works in other countries. She thanked him for sharing his insights and philosophy.

During his current visit Jimmy Engineer arranged an exhibition of his selected paintings at Lionel Wendt Memorial Art Centre in Colombo. The week long solo exhibition displaying 50 selected artwork of the artist concluded yesterday evening.

Jimmy Engineer has donated prints of these paintings to the Lionel Wendt Memorial Art Center, which has been celebrating 60 years of its existence.

Jimmy Engineer has made over 2000 painting, 1000 calligraphies and about 20,000 prints which are in private collections around the world including China, India, Pakistan, Russia, UK and US

Jimmy has the unique honour of having painted Allama Iqbal’s Javed Nama—a feat that Iqbal said would only be possible for one who had “ilm-e-Ilahi”. Amongst his famous works is the one depicting partition which can been seen at the National Art Gallery in Islamabad. He has also designed a number of stamps including the 4 stamp, setenant issue depicting Partition in 2000

Earlier Jimmy Engineer visited Sri Lanka in 2004 and organised a number of programmes in different parts of the island for physically challenged children.