Why do Pakistani paint their trucks?

Cargo trucks painted in bright colors, with an extremely intricate level of detail, are a common sight on the the highways of Pakistan. The paintings — often coupled with lines of poetry, religious calligraphy or common phrases — represent the truck driver’s identity and regional background.

What is the message of truck painting?

Pakistani artists bring message of peace through ‘truck art’ painted on trolley at Taste of Amherst. AMHERST — Two Pakistani artists on a mission to bring a message of peace, love, harmony and respect across the globe using the traditional art of truck painting rolled into Amherst this week.

How will you know if the truck art is from Pakistan?

Trucks from Balochistan and Peshawar are often heavily trimmed with wood, while trucks from Rawalpindi and Islamabad often feature plastic work. Camel bone ornamentation and predominance of red colours is commonly seen on trucks decorated in Sindh.

What is the truck art of Pakistan?

Pakistani “truck art” has become a global phenomenon, inspiring gallery exhibitions abroad and prompting art and craft vendors to sell flamboyant miniature pieces. For the truck drivers, the designs that turn decades-old vehicles into moving murals are often about local pride.

What is the characteristic of truck art?

Truck art is a popular form of bright and decorative, transportation artform in South Asia, featuring elaborate floral and leaf patterns and intricately hand-drawn calligraphy with ornamental wooden and/or mirror work, especially in Pakistani Trucks.

What makes an art beautiful?

What Makes Art Beautiful? Beauty in terms of art refers to an interaction between line, color, texture, sound, shape, motion, and size that is pleasing to the senses.

Why are trucks decorated in India?

For trucks drivers in India, their vehicle is a home away from home. “Since they’re missing their kids and wives, they like to decorate their trucks with ornaments to remind them of home,” explained Suman. “They might adorn the cabin with bangles — things that remind them of their wives.”

What are the different countries who have truck art?

Truck art is also popular in Afganistan and India, as well as Japan and several South American countries.

What country in South Asia is known in making truck art?

Pakistan
For long, it has been an homegrown art-form in South Asia, especially in Pakistan, where the whole idea of decorating trucks (also, lorries and even rickshaws) with complex floral patterns and poetic calligraphy, has evolved in the most radiant and innovative manner.

Why do truck drivers in Pakistan decorate their truck?

In Pakistan, truck art has origins dating back to the 1920s, when Bedford trucks imported from England invaded the country’s streets. In the late 1940s, when trucks began long-haul journeys to deliver goods, each company designed a logo so that illiterate people would understand who owned the truck.

What is truck art in Pakistan?

In Pakistan, truck art has origins dating back to the 1920s, when Bedford trucks imported from England invaded the country’s streets. They were fitted with large wooden prows on top of the truck bed.

What is the history of truck art?

In Pakistan, truck art has origins dating back to the 1920s, when Bedford trucks imported from England invaded the country’s streets. They were fitted with large wooden prows on top of the truck bed. Known as a taj , or crown, the ornate prow was also accompanied by decorative bumpers and wood paneling along the cabin.

Why are there so many colorful trucks in Pakistan?

If you’ve spent any time in South Asia, specifically Pakistan, Afganistan, and India, you’ve surely seen colorful, ornate trucks rumbling down roads and highways. In these countries, especially Pakistan, truck art is more than just cultural expression, it’s also a deeply rooted tradition that can cause a business boom for drivers.

Why do Pakistani Truckers put Sufi portraits on their trucks?

Simultaneously, Muslim transporters and drivers began to paint portraits of famous Sufi saints on their trucks and lorries. By 1947 — the year Pakistan emerged as an independent country — truckers began to add more elements around the portraits of the Sufis, such as whole landscapes, flying horses, peacocks, etc.