"I wish to realize what the colors have to offer in a certain moment. I wait for the things to happen and pervade my picture space, which was empty before their arrival, and would remain empty if resonances of a happening have not left their marks on it."

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Anwar Khan, who goes by the name Anwar in the art world, was born in 1964 in Ambha, a small town in Madhya Pradesh. He followed his own passion for painting to Gwalior, the closest place to his home that offered him a course in art, and obtained a National Diploma in fine arts from there in 1985.

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Anwar was guided by the late eminent artist J. Swaminathan in developing a personal visual vocabulary and using it to communicate through his art. Swaminathan, as a teacher and mentor, introduced Anwar to the philosophy of Sufism and the principles of light and love that guide his work today.

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The Bhopal gas tragedy was one event that helped bring this change in Anwar’s work. Deeply affected by what had happened, the artist had to display his mixed and confused feelings in his work. Most of his recent works show a clear vertical division of the painted surface with an almost central line, often splitting the paper into two contrasting colors and pulling all the activity on the surface towards it.