Finding a new canvas with Loynmoon

Shabbir Loynmoon, head of operations at Grant Road’s family-managed single screen, Alfred Talkies, turns debutant artist

  Talent never dies if you don’t want it to, Shabbir Loynmoon, would insist. Loynmoon, now 71-year-old, started a new journey seven years ago, which was also an old one; he decided to retire from technical work and pursue his passion for art.

"I was good at drawing and sketching at school, and this skill came to use in my profession as an engineer. I could do a lot of three-dimensional drawings, which other engineers could not. It did keep the skill alive in a way but I always devoted some time to paint and nurtured a wish to be an artist, Loynmoon shares, explaining his new journey, seated at his home in Tardeo.

Artist Shabbir Loynmoon at his residence in Tardeo, near Haji Ali. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Even outside of his profession, Loynmoon lived in close proximity to a kind of creativity, now accepted as art. As the head of operations at the family-managed vintage cinema hall, Alfred Talkies at Grant Road, he spent a large part of his life in a world with 40-ft-long banners being painted and mounted every week. His works, though, are not inspired by the world of cinema. Mostly acrylic portraits of freedom fighters, figurative landscapes and abstract, 40 in all, that will be a part of the exhibition.

Tagore by Loynmoon

Freedom on the canvas
A work, which he is excited about, is an iconic image of Mahatma Gandhi, who is seen viewing a slide through a microscope. Other iconic figures from the freedom struggle, too, feature in his collection.

"I have been greatly inspired by the leaders of the freedom struggle and people who have contributed to make our lives better. I have read so much about them. Be it Discovery of India by Pandit Nehru or poetry by Sarojini Naidu and, of course, works of Rabindranath Tagore. These people have also shaped our lives," he says. Politics, however, is not what drives him.

"These people are not political in that sense. It is only politics for the good of the people that interests me."

Loynmoon’s foray into contemporary art deals with life and death

Experimental by nature, Loynmoon picked up a lot about art from the Internet. "There is a sea of knowledge about art on the internet. Some of the material I use, surprise other artists. There are several mediums in acrylic, mediums in oil paint that help the paint dry faster. A lot of artists follow traditions of ritual instead of the tradition of learning and hence they do not pick up these new techniques," he explains.

After this exhibition, Loynmoon is keen to experiment with contemporary art, and even portray concepts of science.

From: December 7, 11 am - 7 pm
At: Artists Centre, Ador House, first floor, near Jehangir Art Gallery, Kala Ghoda.

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