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This week CATF bring forth to you the tale of one of our most talented artist's journey into the realm of art and colors.

Mawra will be sharing with us her story of inspirations and achievements in her own words.



“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

-Pablo Picasso

I believe that in this world, almost every artist uses their practice to clean up their souls from ordinary mess. It is sometimes much easier to create when we are experiencing discord. Peace and contentment can dampen creativity.

The pavement I walked through was that of perceptions, emotions, thoughts and experiments which I term as experiences. This unity of experience traces the inner-self, which is actually me. Being a visual artist, “All is flux” is the notion that inspired me to explore my surroundings. I find pleasure in applying my knowledge in a multidisciplinary context, be it in making paintings, videos, and sculptures or applying it in interior spaces as an installation. I enjoy conceptualization for feasible concepts which focus on detail, aesthetics and environment-friendliness.

My bachelor in Fine arts drew my attention towards visual arts. At the same time, I was curious to observe the general influence of globalization on art, architecture and culture. Therefore, after completing the PGD in Visual Arts, now I am doing M Phil in Communication and cultural studies from National College of Arts. Definitely, all of these subjects have broadened my vision towards critical thinking and writing.

However, when I am creating I enjoy exploring how my ideas can grow throughout the making process, in specific the close connection between materials, processes, concepts and creative thinking. My fragile mediums allow me to think with my hands, as the feeling of cloth, texture of leaves and thread under my fingers gives me the feedback I need.

With time, obsession of observing the nature has drawn my attention towards natural mediums. In my recent art practice I have experimented with multiple natural mediums to understand the changes it goes through with the passage of time.

To stress upon the phenomenon of “flux” I condensed my choice of plants to stemmed roses. I have frozen the transformation of roses on diverse stages to conserve the particular time and different phases of change. But despite of all the effort the phenomena of “flux” is still existent and all the experiences of change are just conserved in my mind. I admit that my passion is largely fueled by my desire to evolve, change, and try new things.

Passion for paintings and photography forced me to conserve the various stages of change in all material culture and to record how these changes occur. Furthermore, I have also captured in my paintings how carnivals, cultures, and architectures of all countries are affected by globalization. Also, my photographic documentations of historical palaces and crafts have donated me an extra insight into the background reasons for which architecture or crafts were made by ancestors and how it is ruined by descendants.

Ever wondered whose creative genius it was which connected with you through that particular piece of art? Ever wondered whose inspiration caught your eye and touched some place deep in your heart? Ever wondered whose hand made those brush strokes? Ever wondered whose heart came up with those symphonies which made your heart beat a little wilder, yet a little calmer? Ever wondered whose brain it was that envisioned such majestic colors and made them palpable for you in paper?

Ever wondered who is the muse behind your favorite art?

Ever wondered whose creation it is which is in sync with your being?

We know that you wonder so.

We know that you would dearly like to be acquainted with these miraculous artists who can bring to you the mottled moon, to touch and to feel; who can make the russet evenings and autumn skies stay with you eternally, who can make you appreciate the beauty that surrounds you like no other being and who leave a mark in your being which can not be tarnished or effaced.



And so Corporate Art Task Force brings for you its Exclusive Artist Spotlight Feature Series.

Get to know the faces behind these creative veils and have a peek inside their inspirations, their muses and forces which drive and sustain them.

Every week, meet one of our creative geniuses and get to know more about the people who make you want to reach your souls



with our Exclusive Artist Spotlight Feature.



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Every artist has a muse, but what happens when two creative geniuses get together?



What for that matter is erotic art?

What does it delineate?

Where does it get its inspiration from?

This week’s feature blog would look into the art of love or what happens when art and love combine. It would try to understand how and why erotic art becomes an important part and parcel of our art canon.

What is Erotic Art and what does it signify?

Erotic art covers any artistic work that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. It includes drawings, engravings, films, music, paintings, photographs, sculptures and writing.

Defining erotic art is difficult since perceptions of both what is erotic and what is art fluctuate. A sculpture of a phallus in some African cultures may be considered a traditional symbol of potency though not overtly erotic.

Is Erotic Art Pornography?

In addition, a distinction is often made between erotic art and pornography (which also depicts scenes of love-making and is intended to evoke erotic arousal, but is not usually considered art). The distinction may lie in intent and message; erotic art would be items intended as pieces of art, encapturing formal elements of art, and drawing on other historical artworks. Pornography may also use these tools, but is primarily intended to arouse one sexually. Nevertheless, these elements of distinction are highly subjective.

Sin City Gallery and 12 Inches of Sin in Las Vegas, Nevada exhibitions focus on art expressive of a diverse view of sexuality which push boundaries and challenge ideas about high and low art. These exhibitions point to the way in which nudity and sexuality is often considered a trope in contemporary art, i.e. Chapman Brothers, Jeff Koons, Vanessa Beecroft, and Marina Abramović.

Art and Love in CATF

CATF has an extensive collection of art which can be considered as master pieces of the nexus of art and love. Visit our website below to check out our art galleries

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What is Expressionism?

Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late nineteenth-century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edward Munch, and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings. The classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread throughout Europe. Its example would later inform Abstract Expressionism, and its influence would be felt throughout the remainder of the century in German art. It was also a critical precursor to the Neo-Expressionist artists of the 1980s.

Key Ideas

• The arrival of Expressionism announced new standards in the creation and judgment of art. Art was now meant to come forth from within the artist, rather than from a depiction of the external visual world, and the standard for assessing the quality of a work of art became the character of the artist's feelings rather than an analysis of the composition.
• Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world.
• Through their confrontation with the urban world of the early twentieth century, Expressionist artists developed a powerful mode of social criticism in their serpentine figural renderings and bold colors. Their representations of the modern city included alienated individuals - a psychological by-product of recent urbanization - as well as prostitutes, who were used to comment on capitalism's role in the emotional distancing of individuals within cities.

Expressionism and CATF

Corporate Art Task Force has an entire collection of expressionist paintings in multiple media. Visit our gallery today and get acquainted with this exotic collection.
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In recent years, the attention paid to contemporary Islamic art has been increasing significantly among curators, art dealers, art critics, and collectors, mostly interested in the arts produced by artists who draw their inspiration from their cultural roots and artistic imagery.

Today, Islamic culture encompasses many different countries around the world, including the ones beyond the main concentration of the Muslim populations in Southeast Asia, in the Middle East, and in North Africa. The artistic integration arising upon the processes of globalization and the diaspora of Islamic artists towards Europe and the United States resulted in a repurposing of Islamic art through new media and, in some cases, incorporating extraneous elements against the dilution of their own cultural and artistic traditions.

Since the late 1990’s the art scene in Islamic countries witnessed a burst of artistic activity, expressing a renovated and realistic vision of local culture. A new generation of artists from a wide range of Islamic countries brought to light a provocative, controversial and persuasive discourse through the use of various media, such as photography, filmmaking, painting, installation, ceramics, digital art, video, and sculpture.
The individual signature of these artists presents a remediation of traditional arts; Arabic script embedded in mixed media formats.
These traditional yet innovative Islamic artworks are a signature aspect of Corporate Art Task Force. CATF deals in all kinds of Islamic art, be it calligraphy, literary art, motifs, architecture or a juxtaposition of some or all. These rich and diverse depictions of Islamic art which are true their cultural roots yet innovate simultaneously are presented in our extension collection, which can be visited by clicking on the following link.
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Begin your new year with an artwork which reflects the depth of your soul!

Happy New Year
From Team CATF!

"It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago. She outgrows his prophecies faster than he can make them." - Mark Twain, 1883

Chicago was only 46 years old when Mark Twain wrote those words, but it had already grown more than 100-fold, from a small trading post at the mouth of the Chicago River into one of the nation’s largest cities, and it wasn’t about to stop. Over the next 20 years, it would quadruple in population, amazing the rest of the world with its ability to repeatedly reinvent itself.
And it still hasn’t stopped. Today, Chicago has become a global city, a thriving center of international trade and commerce, and a place where people of every nationality come to pursue the American dream.

Early Chicago

Chicago’s first permanent resident was a trader named Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a free black man apparently from Haiti, who came here in the late 1770s. In 1795, the U.S. government built Fort Dearborn at what is now the corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive (look for the bronze markers in the pavement). It was burned to the ground by Native Americans in 1812, rebuilt and demolished in 1857.

A Trading Center

Incorporated as a city in 1837, Chicago was ideally situated to take advantage of the trading possibilities created by the nation’s westward expansion. The completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848 created a water link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, but the canal was soon rendered obsolete by railroads. Today, 50 percent of U.S. rail freight continues to pass through Chicago, even as the city has become the nation’s busiest aviation center, thanks to O’Hare and Midway International airports.

The Great Fire of 1871

As Chicago grew, its residents took heroic measures to keep pace. In the 1850s, they raised many of the streets five to eight feet to install a sewer system – and then raised the buildings, as well. Unfortunately, the buildings, streets and sidewalks were made of wood, and most of them burned to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The Chicago Fire Department training academy at 558 W. DeKoven St. is on the site of the O’Leary property where the fire began. The Chicago Water Tower and Pumping Station at Michigan and Chicago avenues are among the few buildings to have survived the fire.

"The White City"

Chicago rebuilt quickly. Much of the debris was dumped into Lake Michigan as landfill, forming the underpinnings for what is now Grant Park, Millennium Park and the Art Institute of Chicago. Only 22 years later, Chicago celebrated its comeback by holding the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, with its memorable “White City.” One of the Exposition buildings was rebuilt to become the Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago refused to be discouraged even by the Great Depression. In 1933 and 1934, the city held an equally successful Century of Progress Exposition on Northerly Island.

Hull House
In the half-century following the Great Fire, waves of immigrants came to Chicago to take jobs in the factories and meatpacking plants. Many poor workers and their families found help in settlement houses operated by Jane Addams and her followers. Her Hull House Museum is located at 800 S. Halsted St.

Chicago Firsts

Throughout their city’s history, Chicagoans have demonstrated their ingenuity in matters large and small:
• The nation’s first skyscraper, the 10-story, steel-framed Home Insurance Building, was built in 1884 at LaSalle and Adams streets and demolished in 1931.
• When residents were threatened by waterborne illnesses from sewage flowing into Lake Michigan, they reversed the Chicago River in 1900 to make it flow toward the Mississippi.
• Start of the "Historic Route 66" which begins at Grant Park on Adams Street in the front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
• Chicago was the birthplace of:
• the refrigerated rail car (Swift)
• mail-order retailing (Sears and Montgomery Ward)
• the car radio (Motorola)
• the TV remote control (Zenith)
• The first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, ushering in the Atomic Age, took place at the University of Chicago in 1942. The spot is marked by a Henry Moore sculpture on Ellis Avenue between 56th and 57th streets.
• The 1,450-foot Sears Tower, completed in 1974, is the tallest building in North America and the third tallest in the world.

CATF’s Art Collection of Chicagoan CityScapes

CATF’s art collection of Chicagoan cityscapes is a reflection of the city’s diversity and modernity. Its landscapes and monuments have been portrayed with color in such a manner that they have successfully managed to reflect Chicago’s soul and spirit.
Click the following link to visit our gallery of Chicago’s Cityscapes.

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Calligraphy

CATF has an entire range of Islamic art diverse in its themes and form yet unified by the similarity of its origin and the school of thought which it gets its inspiration from.
Hereby, we would be discussing these varied themes which can be classified underneath the broader umbrella term of Islamic Art. These themes inspire from one another and as a corollary their presence can be traced within each other.
When one speaks of Islamic Art, Calligraphy is by default considered to be a very significant part of it. Islamic calligraphy comprises of elegant scripts which represent the divine word revealed on the Prophet Muhammad. These calligraphic verses can be found on a variety of substrata and have a profound presence both in arts and architecture.

Motifs

Along with calligraphy, a very significant theme of Islamic arts are geometric and vegetative motifs. These motifs have a very profound presence in all those lands where Islam is practiced as a religion and is a cultural force. The intricate metal work of Safavid Iran and Alhambra Spain is one such example of this popularity and presence of this form of Islamic art.

Architecture

Islamic architecture also comes with its peculiarities and can be witnessed in the minarets of mosques, mausoleums and gardens.
All of these themes recur in CATF’s amazingly expansive collection of Islamic Art which features calligraphy, architecture, motifs and other varied peculiarities of this rich tradition.

To visit our art galleries, click on the link below
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Islamic Calligraphy- What is it?



Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, based upon the alphabet in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. It includes Arabic, Ottoman, and Persian calligraphy.

It is known in Arabic as khatt Islami (خط اسلامي), meaning Islamic line, design, or construction.



What does Islamic Calligraphy comprise of?

The development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an; chapters, and excerpts from the Qur'an is a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. Deep religious association with the Qur'an, as well as suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous has led calligraphy to become one of the major forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures.

What are the different styles of Islamic Calligraphy?

As Islamic calligraphy is highly venerated, most works follow examples set by well-established calligraphers, with the exception of secular or contemporary works. In antiquity, a pupil would copy a master's work repeatedly until their handwriting was similar. The most common style is divided into angular and cursive, each further divided into several sub-styles.



The different styles of Islamic Calligraphy include

Kufic
Naqsh
Regional
Modern
CATF’s expansive collection of Islamic calligraphy encompasses all these diverse and varied styles.

Check out our entire range at

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Faisalabad is an extremely rich and diverse city of Pakistan with a very generous culture which has its roots embedded deeply in Sikh and British traditions. Whether it is textiles, architecture, food, music, literature or art, Faisalabad, formerly known as Layalpur, has made its mark all across the globe.

This is precisely why, we have chosen Faisalabad and its various historic sites as a substratum for our art collection. The resplendent baazars of Layalpur, its various architectural structures, its Buddhist monasteries, Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu Mandirs and Zoroastrian Temples all reflect the unique lively spirit of this city, which is beautifully illustrated in our art collection featuring the multi-dimensional facets of Faisalabadi culture.

Click below to view our exciting collection clad in exciting colors.
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CityScapes- Where did this art tradition come from?

In recent times, urban landscapes or more appropriately, urban cityscapes have emerged as a significant trend which no modern or contemporary artist would be unaware of. The impressionists Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro with their paintings of Paris along with the realist painter Antonio Lopez and his portraits of Madrid conjugated with Richard Estes of New York and his photo realist depictions were some stepping stones for this art trend to go forward and to be remembered by. But one does wonder where did this art tradition spring from and who were its protagonists, responsible for its creation and proliferation.

As far as the beginning of this tradition is concerned, just as it is impossible to pin down a certain date when cities surfaced, similarly one cannot delineate the appropriate origins and genealogy of this art tradition.

However, since we are concerned with American cityscapes so let us trace back the origins of this art tradition in the United States of America.

CityScapes in America

In 19th century, the most prominent figure in American painting happens to be most involved in painting American cityscapes. James Abbott McNeil Whistler was noted for his Nocturnal paintings of American as well as European cities. He was followed by Childe Hassam, a very significant impressionist painter.

Later, ‘ Aschan School’ emerged and we witness cityscape painting reaching its zenith. Ashcan School comprised of a group of painters whose primary concern was to give realist depictions of everyday life in New York City. Many noteworthy artists emerged from this generation who worked on various aspects and facets of cityscapes.

CATF's Collection of American Cityscapes

Hereby, CATF presents its collection of paintings on American cityscapes which cover different states and different cities. You would come across impressionist, expressionist and realist depictions of these cityscapes in a renewed light and with a defamiliarized perspective.

Visit our gallery ‘ United States of America’ and satiate your aesthetic appetites with these reinvigorating cityscapes.

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