1. Jan-Feb 2011

ART
Geoffrey’s artistic journey began in 1960 after his arrival in London, following
which he chose to move to the US and remained there till 1985 – a long
stretch of time, which he cleverly made use of to acquire a prestigious Law
Degree from Harvard, and as an ambitious artist – to explore free expressions
to the limit.
As a means of expression, ‘Collages’ have all along remained his forte and
the mainstay. But what made and led him to earn a celebrity artist status
are his convictions in art - the supremacy of thoughts over execution. He
strongly opines, "An artist must essentially think and not merely create. The
medium thus, is secondary." A short speech made during the inauguration
of his exhibition at the Siddhartha Art Gallery reconfirmed what has been
described in many of the writings as well as in a book published by National
Book Foundation, Islamabad, Pakistan - that Geoffrey is a strong believer
of Dadaism. In his very opening lines he spelled the ephemeral character of
our life and so is the real essence of art - indicating his strong disdain for the
conventional notion of art. No wonder his art journey is known to characterize
bizarre forms and expressions. Unusual it may
sound and look – in his early days in an exhibition,
it is reported that he framed a piece of brick with
an abrasive surface used for scrubbing during
bathing, and titled it, ‘Portrait of an Art Critic”. In
another exhibit, he caused an uproar which turned
into praises when he put up a tattered old bag with
a bold caption, ‘Anything you put in becomes an
art! ’. This kind of artistic antics naturally remind
one of anti–rational philosophy called Dadaism,
propounded by the legendary French artist, Marcel
Duchamp, who made an upheaval for about six
years (1916- 1922) with his unusual display of
mundane objects of daily use as a work of art in
the French capital Paris as a display of protest
against War and the futility of all established values
then. And Mr. Geoffrey, some forty years later has
sought to resurrect similar ideas with similar bizarre
exhibits. In 1963, Duchamp himself is said to have
visited his show and in a lighter view, was known
to have remarked that “..compared to Geoffrey, I
am a conventional artist ..” The comment made
by the guru of Dadaism himself, speaks volumes
of the extent of rebellious thoughts of Geoffrey.
Mercifully, the show in the Siddhartha Art Gallery
was far more conventional. And during the show,
many viewers as well as the reporters were seen
to be seeking the meaning of the random pieces
of pictures and text torn from magazines, the core
elements of his expression, little knowing that he
is an artist with an attitude of anything goes; one
does not need to always draw or paint to create so
long as the artist thinks it ticks and conveys what is
intended. No wonder, anyone who approached him
for explanations came back with his answer, “Art is
meant to be imbued not to be described!”
But what makes Syed Iqbal Geoffrey more
interesting is his facet of a barrister, which earned
him more screaming headlines in the West than
as an artist. Out of many, two events reveal his
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