麻豆社

An internationally renowned artist from Lahore in Pakistan, Imran Qureshi is a master of the very delicate and the very brutal: combining tiny brushstrokes inspired by the 16th Century Mughal masters with large-scale installations evoking the carnage left after a bomb attack, his work has the power to shock and intrigue in equal measure.

An unlikely friendship connects him with Christian Louboutin, one of the world鈥檚 best-known shoe designers, whose trademark red-soled, beautifully crafted pumps are worn by the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Rihanna.

For this programme, Christian meets Imran at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, a huge warehouse turned art gallery in Paris. It is the venue of a major solo exhibition, and Christian joins Imran as crates are unpacked and last-minute changes made to individual paintings and the exhibition as a whole, with some new work inspired by the bomb attacks on two mosques in New Zealand in March 2019.

鈥淭here is an element of violence in the work,鈥� Imran says, 鈥渁t the same time, when you get close to it, it becomes poetic as well.鈥�

He has even brought a piece of his studio with him from Lahore, which becomes part of his installation in its own right 鈥� and as he and Christian discuss each other鈥檚 art, it emerges that these two creative giants have a surprising amount in common.