Islamabad: Nearly five months after many paintings by Pakistani artists were vandalised in Ahmedabad, 42 of them have finally returned home and are being exhibited at a gallery here.
`Resilient Ambassadors`, an exhibition of paintings that was vandalised in Ahmedabad in August has opened here today.
The gallery in collaboration with the International Creative Art Centre (ICAC) of Mumbai, organised a painting exhibition at Amdavad-ni-Gufa art gallery in Ahmedabad in August, 2013, to promote Pakistani art in India. Sixteen artists with their 47 paintings participated as goodwill ambassadors from Pakistan.
However, alleged Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists vandalised the gallery over rise in LoC tensions and destroyed art worth over Rs 1.4 crore.
Surprisingly, the Pakistani gallery and the artists want to go back to India?again to exhibit their products.
"But this time I would take insurance and draw up a proper contract," Dr Arjumand Faisel, the curator of the gallery told PTI.
Asked why he wants to go to India again, he said, "People were very nice to us. They came in large numbers in Mumbai when we exhibited in February last year. Three of our paintings were also sold there. They appreciated the work of Pakistani artists."
Faisel, who is an MBBS doctor and for whom art is a passion, said getting the artwork back to Pakistan was a long drawn process.
They had to be shipped first to Dubai as he was told, "no courier company was willing to take them to Pakistan".
"I would love to exhibit the paintings again in India. Peace can be promoted through art and none of the artists have anything against going back to India. Art can indeed bring people together and hence I have called the exhibition `Resilient Ambassadors` since they truly are," Faisel said.
The exhibition showcased a wide variety of Pakistani paintings including artworks based on heritage, social discourses, cubism, psychedelic narratives, miniature, female figures, aesthetics, landscapes, photo realistic images and compositions with silver oxidation.
Out of the 47 paintings that went for the exhibition, 30 survived with or without bruises, 14 are badly damaged and three are missing.
The fact that 30 survived is due to the reason that the display was on a rotational basis and half of the paintings were in storage at the time of attack.
The participating artists included Abid Hasan, Abrar Ahmed, Akram Spaul, Aqeel Solangi, Arjumand Faisel, Hajra Mansoor, Irfan Gul Dahri, Mussarrat Nahid Imam, Mudassar Manzoor, Mughees Riaz, Mutaib Shah, Omar Farid, Mansoor Rahi, R M Naeem, Sana Arjumand and Wahab Jaffer.
Despite being bruised and battered, the asking price of a Mansoor Rahi, often called the `MF Hussain of Pakistan`, was Rs 2.5 lakh.
