Anwar Shemza

Anwar Shemza was a British artist and writer of Pakistani origin who lived in Stafford, England. His work has been exhibited in art museums and galleries in Pakistan and the United Kingdom, as well as other countries. His paintings are part of the permanent collections at the Tate, the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and others. He was also an accomplished writer, having published several Urdu novels and books of poetry in the 1950s and wrote plays performed on Radio Pakistan. He was initially influenced by modernism, most notably Paul Klee, although later works also showed a traditional Islamic influence. He used geometric shapes, patterns, and calligraphy to create abstract compositions that reflected his ideas and emotions. He was a leading member of the Lahore Art Circle, a modernist group in Pakistan. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He returned to Pakistan briefly, but moved to England permanently in 1962. He worked as an art teacher and a director of the Contemporary Art Gallery in Rawalpindi. He received the President's Award for Pride of Performance in 1965. He died of natural causes at his home in Stafford, England on 18 January 1985. He was 56 years old. He is considered as one of the most influential and original painters of Pakistan and Britain, and a book about his life and work by Iftikhar Dadi was published in 2015.