'Ten Great Artists' Commemorative Postage Stamps

Laila Shahzada's early years of schooling were spent in England. Adolescence was spent in the family home in Jamnagar, India, where she was surrounded by the traditions of the past. She spoke of silver furniture, bowls of pearls, iridescent ornaments cool to the touch that were intrinsic ingredients of this period in her life. Reality came with partition, when life itself became the only object to be considered. Her earliest paintings of the 1950s were delicate, tentative, in marked contrast to the later forceful work executed as 'Drift Moods'. Initially trained in England in drawing and watercolour, Laila received early encouragement in Pakistan from Fyzee Rahamin and his musicologist wife, Attiya Begum. In those days, there were few women artists in Pakistan, and it was Nagi who taught her to use oils. She made a great impact on the media when the 'Drift Moods' paintings were exhibited in 1964, a series inspired by pieces of driftwood battered into distorted forms by the power of the sea. These Laila compared to the human condition, forced into unnatural shapes by stronger powers. Later inspired by the artifacts of the Indus Valley Civilization, she worked on a series titled 'Moenjodaro', shown in New York, where she was awarded a gold medal and the Key to the city of New York in 1975.

Laila has painted seventy historical paintings, a substantial contribution to this genre. In 1995 her work was included in an exhibition of Paintings from Pakistan at the Pacific, Asia Museum, California where her landscape paintings were graded with those of Georgia O'Keefe.

She was awarded the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz in 1986, and in 1994 was posthumously awarded The President's Award for the Pride of Performance.

Marjorie Husain

"The following series of stamps is a posthumous tribute to "Painters of Pakistan" who helped to raise an awareness of art in Pakistan and established their names in the universal art world."

Pakistan Post

"Any discussion of the contemporary art movement in Pakistan must begin by enquiring into its cultural past, particularly in view of the rich and unique artistic tradition and the heritage of its people. The historical circumstances which have subscribed to Pakistan, are often referred to as a 'crucible' of cultures, a traditional meeting-point of East and West. One may trace influences of Aryan and pre-Aryan eras; the Buddhist and the Greek, the Mughal and the Rajput cultural elements. All these influences are clearly visible, though aesthetically integrated, in the artworks of the artists who have inhabited these regions over a period of four to five thousand years.

The arts of painting, modelling and engraving are deeply rooted in this land. Creative artists and their work flourished here through successive periods of history and pre-history. The last of these periods, and the nearest to our own time historically was dominated by the Mughals, a dynamic, vigorous and highly artistic people. In the course of several centuries they became fully integrated with the local population, and greatly contributed to the cultural renaissance in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.

All these works of individual artists are sensitive to a multiplicity of influences while at the same time striving to evolve individual expressions of their own."

Marjorie Husain