June 8, 2002

The Art Emporium in Lahore houses a world of oil paintings, exclusively designed furniture and antique mirrors. The marbled foyer leads into a lounge where the cackle of wood draws attention to a huge 19th century-styled fireplace. In the summer, the central air-conditioning is switched on to offer the art gallery as a refuge to the visitors.

Tehreem Khan-Saigol, the owner-painter, has managed to make this nearly year-old gallery an expression of her individuality. Enter the place and you can spend a good few hours looking at the paintings signed by Tehreem Khan. All through the year, the gallery serves to exhibit her art and designer skills either in the form of paintings or furniture.

But the gallery does not only showcase Saigol’s art. Its a la mode interior gives you the benefit of appreciating art with style. It is a place where an obliging attendant serves you tea or coffee. And if Tehreem Khan-Saigol happens to be in the country, she would tempt you with delicious delicacies.

“I have made this gallery for people to look at art in beautiful surroundings. They can come here whenever we open for the season, sit, chat and have a cup of tea. It’s not necessary for them to buy something when they come here,” she explains.

The running exhibition entitled Endurance, addressing the September 11 attacks in the US, has caught the eye of many diplomats in Pakistan. A tragedy of immense magnitude, Saigol says she personally lost a few friends to the carnage. She was requested to display the paintings at the World Bank’s office in Islamabad.

Endurance is a series 22 oil paintings, partially showing the horrors of September 11 through a play of colour and abstract form. Far from focusing exclusively on the morbidity of death at the twin towers, Saigol has devoted a number of paintings to the embattled women of Afghanistan, Palestine and Kashmir.

“A woman suffers the most in all this madness. She often has to bear the loss of a husband, a brother or a son. In the end, she is left alone to deal with the anguish.” But, with Saigol, the transportation of sorrow on canvas is achieved in an unusual way: she uses a profusion of flamboyant colours. Tehreem uses crimson in a painting entitled Endurance, which also gives the series its name. Touches of orange and yellow in New York offset the charcoal grey in the background. By far, her most vivid fusion of shades can be seen in Human Bomb, a portrayal of hope arising out of the destruction. The entire series entails oil on canvas.

With a degree from the Royal College of Art in London, Saigol makes a deliberate attempt to play with bold colours. “I don’t want to project art blandly. An artist should always make a canvas exciting for people to look at. I have tried to document 9/11 without making it morbid.” Immensely motivated to set a different trend in art in Pakistan, Saigol does not want to restrict herself to painting hackneyed images. “Most of the artists here have not got out of painting the inner city and the dry landscape. Pakistan is more than that. We are a lively people of a colourful country. Why depict us in dull monotones?”

The Art Emporium itself is a depiction of Tehreem Khan-Saigol’s attitude towards art: bold, uninhibited and not typical. Are there any critics? Plenty. But that only manages to elicit a chuckle from Saigol. “Critics? Good!” she exclaims.