Works of current renowned artist Raqib Shaw (1974) from Kashmir and currently living in London are considered as one of the most important and most original in the area of contemporary paintings. They are characterized by subtle, wrought, very decorative art techniques, which Shaw achieved after years spent experimenting with various colors and paints.
Raqib Shaw's works are very decorative at first glance, but behind the ornamentally external appearance of the works sights with a strong erotic, sometimes even sado-masochistic, subtexts are hiding. Fantastic scenes dominate half human and half animal figures whose behavior is driven by completely simple basic instincts. When you see them, you must think of, for example, Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch.
Raqib Shaw's works are also strongly influenced by the traditional oriental culture of India, Persia and Kashmir. They remind viewers of magnificent patterns of antique oriental carpets or illuminated Persian manuscripts from the 15th century. Shaw also claims his oriental heritage by themes which often originate in Persian but also Greek-Romanian mythological stories and fables.
Traditional motives of Eastern culture appear in Raqib Shaw's works, with Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian literary references and a fascination with European art from the Middle Ages to the present. His paintings, which are not based on original forms, are not a reminder of classic themes or figurative paintings. Complex paintings showing cruelty, primal human and animal instincts represent a great reflection of the tangled and complicated present.
