TIME and again, our priceless artists, musicians, poets, painters and singers complain of neglect and of not being given their deserving place. Stories are repeatedly published in the press about artists of repute dying of starvation and poverty in some remote corner of the country, but they prove to be nothing more than cries in the dark. One such story is that of Khalifa Irshad Beg, an artist with a unique flair and love for wood in all its shades and types. With years of training, practice and skillful work, he is now in danger of perishing in poverty and distress, bestowed on him by the very people who would “bury him with honour after pelting him with stones throughout his life” as Irshad puts it.
Irshad Beg is not an unfamiliar name for many. Some might have heard or read about him in the press. Others have seen his works of art at exhibitions and appreciated it, but to what consequence? Though a craftsman of rare talent and unique abilities, he is facing extreme suffering and hardship due to the unsupportive attitude of the authorities and the complacence which has, over the years, become our hallmark as a society.
His ‘pieced wood’ art is a unique form in which thousands of wood pieces are collected from all over the world and then refined, processed and polished with a variety of traditional tools to be given the most striking shapes and forms. No artificial colours are used in the process. Only the natural shades of wood are enhanced and glorified. The pieces of wood are cut into intricate patterns, according to the designs chosen by the craftsman, and then fixed into larger frames without any chemical or glue.
After having worked in Karachi for 32 years, Irshad Beg was threatened by a political party and forced to take refuge in Rawalpindi with his two most valuable possessions — his children and 19 sacks of wood pieces which are the basis of his craft.
“I neither have any place to do my work nor any proper room to exhibit my finished products. The owner of an Urdu weekly has given me a small room free of cost in front of his office to display my work, but this is not enough. I have received countless awards (the most recent from Pervez Musharraf), letters of appreciation and certificates, but are they enough to fill an empty stomach? I have taught this skill to my seven sons, but except for one, no one else wants to do it because it does not bring in any money. No government institution has ever taken any solid step for artists and poor craftsmen like me. I am forced to say that had suicide been not a sin, I would have taken my own life by now. I only have one request of the authorities: Please do not kill us, as you have done for all these years. Enough is enough,” he laments.
Irshad Beg’s whole family, except his mother, was killed in the 1947 riots. He has repeatedly received offers from abroad to come and work outside Pakistan, but he does not wish to leave his homeland. Besides making beautiful furniture pieces, chessboards, chests and stands, he has made portraits of a number of dignitaries including George Washington, Queen Elizabeth, King Hussein, Khomeini, Prince Abdullah, George Bush, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Ayub Khan, King Qaboos and others. “I have been waiting to present Prince Karim Agha Khan’s portrait to him as a gift, but whenever the Prince comes to Islamabad, the hotel administration makes me sit at the service gate for hours and then has the audacity to tell me that His Highness has left and I should come again the next time he arrives,” he says.
TIME and again, our priceless artists, musicians, poets, painters and singers complain of neglect and of not being given their deserving place. Stories are repeatedly published in the press about artists of repute dying of starvation and poverty in some remote corner of the country, but they prove to be nothing more than cries in the dark. One such story is that of Khalifa Irshad Beg, an artist with a unique flair and love for wood in all its shades and types. With years of training, practice and skillful work, he is now in danger of perishing in poverty and distress, bestowed on him by the very people who would “bury him with honour after pelting him with stones throughout his life” as Irshad puts it.
