An earnest tribute to Mujib
“An artist never dies, for he lives through his works,” said Shabana Azmi while paying a memorial tribute to artist Farhan Mujib in the city recently.
The soft winter breeze was filled with silent tears as guests poured in at the do. Some called his works shamelessly gorgeous, others talked about his love for food, and then there were some, whose voices choked while paying a tribute.
Such was the presence of Mujib, even after he is gone. “He made surreal beautiful pieces from scratch. Each of his paintings was a catalogue in itself. He will live in the warmth of his endless conversations,” said a friend.
Not many artists who have the ability to bring a meaning to collages like Mujib. A lecturer in physics in Aligarh, he was a hobby artist who became a full-time collage artist when his works found growing appreciation. We know him for his precision in collages. They way he put together those pieces of papers from magazines and photographs created intricate images. One of Farhan’s students took everyone back in time by sharing an anecdote. He said, “He made a big change in my life. When I was his student, he would come to my room often and we would have long conversations about life and art. He used to ask me, ‘do you have paper’ and then he would draw. We shared love of music, so he would sing songs, and I would ask him meaning to those songs.”
The artist will always be remembered for the collages he created, those doorways and windows, birds, paintings and deities on papers that vie for attention will not have Mujib holding them all together in one cloistered space (his collages).
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