Colin David

Colin David was one of Pakistan's most popular artists, belonging to a generation of outstanding painters that emerged from the Punjab University and the National College of Arts in the 1960s. He went on to study at the Slade School of Art in London under the tutelage of English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher, Sir William Menzies Coldstream. David was most famous for his figurative nudes. He attempted to never paint his nudes in isolation; they were always part of a larger composition with an object such as a pillow, cone, ball or other shapes to show movement and optical illusion. He was a master of color. Here, we see a partially nude female, surrounded by a geometric grid in neutral shades of gray and black. Clothed in gray trousers, she lays with her head face-down in a vibrant green pillow, the focal point of the composition. The curves of her figure contrast the angular, checker-board environment. Her pose and the claustrophobic surrounding create a powerful image, with equal parts intrigue and despair. 

'He painted nudes in his art, but they carry the eternal innocence of being beautiful, to interpret virtuousness of a goddess, to incarnate the allegory of an ‘Aphrodite’. The naturalistic colors and symphonized compositions with a touch of Surrealist approach, made him the standalone master of his own style — Colin David, the unsung hero of Pakistani art.' (N. Alam, 'The artist extraordinaire: The unsung hero,' Dawn, 26 June 2016, https://www.dawn.com/news/1266937)