Zubeida Agha

Acquired directly from the artist circa early 1960s

Jamsheed K. Marker and Diana J. Marker met Zubeida Agha through the politician Roedad Khan, a colleague of her brother, Agha Hamid, in the Civil Service of Pakistan. The Markers spent time with Zubeida in Pakistan and Rawalpindi. Diana and Zubeida became close friends, sharing an affinity for nature and the comfort of solitude. This painting in the Marker collection traveled with them around the world, providing a profound feeling of solace and calm to Diana.

Zubeida Agha was born in Faisalabad in 1922. She completed degrees in political science and philosophy at Kinnaird College, Lahore, and later attended the Lahore School of Fine Art. In 1946, her brother, Agha Abdul Hamid, connected her with Mario Perlingieri. Perlingieri was an Italian prisoner of war in India and a student of Picasso, and his advice spurred Agha to begin painting ideas instead of subjects from life. Agha later studied at Central Saint Martins, London and École Nationale des Beaux-Art, Paris, before returning to Pakistan. 

In the current lot from 1959, Agha depicts a pastel-toned landscape. A soft haze of pink and white blossoms fill the composition, exquisitely counterpoised by the stark, staccato lines of outstretching branches. This work demonstrates Agha’s unparalleled understanding of coloration, and whilst rooted in the tangible world, illustrates her proclivity towards subtle forms of abstraction. Whilst Agha often painted more conceptual works, such as Metamorphosis (1948), in the current lot the artist appears to immerse herself in the joys of spring. 

‘Over the years [Agha] borrowed and reassembled human figures, horses, landscapes, cityscapes, flowers, objects, geometric shapes, planes and volumes, and strained herself to translate them into a subjective reality outside the realm of time and space.’ (R. Naseer, ‘Zubeida Agha’, Aware Magazine, Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, 2018)