Syed Ali Arif

For hardcore art lovers, accepting the fact that a self-taught artist has fresh ideas and original concepts to offer gets a bit difficult to accept, but one look at this artist's work fills up the harshest of critics with words of praise and pushes them to ponder"”does eminence in the world of art comes only with formal training? Training is important according to Syed Ali Arif, 34, but he does not regret being untrained since during his younger times his family was dealing with financial crisis, forcing him to ignore his innate love to paint and pursue a conventional career that could help him generate money. Arif went to a science school instead, hoping he could at least study human anatomy if not anything else and this, he believes, was a stepping stone to realizing his dream. Not an Einstein in studies himself, Arif would skip classes that he felt were too monotonous and boring, to sit for hours outside movie theatres, staring at the hand-painted posters, memorizing their compositions, brush strokes and other artistic details adopted by the poster artist. Then he would rush back home, pull out sheets of paper to replicate what he obserbved, sometimes painting for hours together. It was the study of anatomy and this unique way o...