Ian Ali’s work on display

It was the Ian Ali Memorial Exhibition at the ASTT’s headquarters, Circular Road, Federation Park, which was one of the society’s exhibits for local artists titled “Iconic”.

It has been ten years since Ali’s passing and the ASTT decided Ali’s many works should be put on display.

There were 25 pieces done in acrylic paints and 47 water colours which were from books that have been published in either children’s story books, or the newspapers. Some of the books do not exist any more as they were out of publication.

In some cases, some of the children’s books were written by his wife Carolyn Ali, who is a published children’s author, and for which he did the illustrations for some of those stories.

Exhibition coordinator Joy Ramcharan- Cooblal said many of the paintings were themed around our local culture, steelpan, Carnival pieces, seascapes, village life and local folklore. She said there were some unfinished pieces where he died before he could complete them.

Ali’s daughter Patti- Anne described her father as a man who fought against the odds after being born into poverty, not having much to eat or wear, but nevertheless decided to follow the dreams and visions he had inside of him. Despite his challenges he excelled at Naparima Boys College and in 1962, he was awarded a government scholarship to study art in the United Kingdom.

Upon his return home in 1966, he began his long and illustrious career which spanned over four decades, from set designing to art exhibitions, writing to illustrating, art education to judging for the Prime Minister’s Best Village Competitions.

He also hosted several television shows, one of the most memorable being Rikki Tikki.

The exhibition featured a selection of pieces that reflected the range of his skill, his ability to create fascinating movement and understanding of colour, light and shadow.

this showed through a huge painting of the Hindu deity Mother Lakshmi in bold red and embellished with jewels, another large piece of a sultry La Diablesse, and one of Belen dancers in full flowing gowns.

Seascapes abounded and the steelpan was an explosion of reds, greens and yellows.

Stick fighters danced wildly while blue devils spewed shooting flames. Ali may have moved on to another realm, but he left behind a large piece of himself, his legacy that he built for over 40 years.