Mussarat Mirza is considered a draughtswoman par excellence and a master-painter in the medium of oils. Her early work offers us studies of singular elements: an earthen wall, a quiet doorway or street passage, a skyline. And then they go further. Across such figural anchors, Mirza evolves a native atmosphere, realising the particular brazen light of her home, its spare, precious shades, its air and dust views.

In so doing, the painter develops a language for visible and invisible contours of her environment. Layer upon layer, her art hosts archival energy. The material history of Upper Sindh reverberates on Mirza’s canvases.

In later works, her cityscapes grow in courage. As place-lines soften, there is an emergence of organic forms, and a renewed sensing into abstraction. The Urdu word, therao, has often been used to describe her large-scale canvases. This term suggests a slowing down, a spaciousness in time and in spirit. It is as though the artist’s sustained contemplation of light carries asr, a living influence from within the Islamic tradition of tasawwuf (mysticism). Once registered, one begins to sense the current across her lifework.

Secular art historical language strains at its limits to adequately respond to Mirza’s oeuvre. The enigmatic impact of her vision offers us a starting point—a source of reflection for lay viewers and collectors, as for students and researchers.