Travels Mundane & Surreal: The Art Of Esther Rahim

Never much lionized in the annals of mainstream Pakistani art, Esther Rahim was nevertheless a painter of no small significance. Also known as Esmet, she was the wife of J.A Rahim the well-known civil servant, diplomat, politician and founding member of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Esmet Rahim was a pioneer of the Karachi Arts Council along with Zubaida Agha. She was also an enthusiastic patron of block printed textiles and her patronage contributed to their revival and survival in Karachi during the 1950s.

A friend of both Amrita Sher-Gil and Jamini Roy, Esther found her own voice and vision only towards the end of her artistic life. The resulting body of work remains of undisputed value and exceptional maturity. This collection of essays hopes to introduce the work of this remarkable woman artist to the audience she was denied during her lifetime.

Professor Salima Hashmi taught at the National College of Arts, Lahore, for thirty years. She was also the Principal of the College for four years, and held the post of Professor of Fine Arts. She is a painter of repute whose works have been exhibited widely in Pakistan and in a number of international exhibitions. She has written extensively on arts and crafts and has curated exhibitions of contemporary art and traditional textile within Pakistan, as well as abroad. Co-founder of the Rohtas Gallery in Islamabad (estb. 1981) she established Rohtas 2 in Lahore in 2001. She is currently Dean, School of Visual Arts at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.