August 12, 2006

It is late afternoon and the heat is intense on an August day in Lahore. And perhaps it is the searing temperature which is responsible for the near deserted look on the streets around Tollinton gallery, once a bustling market like Karachi’s Empress Market now turned into a ‘city meuseum’ and art centre following renovations to the original structure of the English building housing the Market. The guard informs that the gallery is closed for summer and there is no exhibition currently on. Surprising! Since nothing in Lahore really shuts down, come hail or highwater, rain or earthquake.

In the context of art and culture in Pakistan — visual as well as performing — Lahore is an art enthusiast’s dream city. Galleries, museums and other cultural locations lie scattered over the old and new city sites. Just on and around the Mall which lies in the city’s urban center, there are numerous ‘art havens’ which one may just pop into even on a busy day and sit around for a quiet moment of reflection in the peace emanating from the artistic ambience within.

Most of the galleries contain a small cafe# where one may find a mix of students, scholars of art or just office goers taking time out from the daily humdrum. Some of these cafes also have extended rooms which may be holding a discourse on art given by a veteran artist or a debate between random people on the merits and demerits of a particular art genre.

Perhaps it is the ancient roots of the city which have managed to hold fast the cultural ambience fast dissipating from many of our other urban centres. Karachi can claim no such trend of tea and talk amid a backdrop of art works. While galleries abound in Karachi, they are mostly restricted to exhibitions put by artists with no concept of any reading rooms or debate forums flourishing in tandem within the galleries’ walls. And in Islamabad, the galleries hardly have a visible presence, barring a couple which have sporadic displays. In the National Gallery in Islamabad soon to be opened to the public after extensive planning and curating, hopefully an atmosphere (and logistics) would be provided to promote the trend of casual discourse on art by enthusiasts, not necessarily having claims of an erudite nature.

When the Mohatta Palace museum first opened its doors to the public nearly ten years ago promises were made of having an ‘active art culture’ on its premises as plans included a coffee house and reading rooms. But, though the Museum continues to display fabulously curated exhibitions of mammoth proportions, that particular trend where one may just imbibe the arts subconsciously while perhaps studying for an exam, remains absent.

Among the galleries of Lahore, the permanent exhibition at Alhamra must deserve a special mention. The gallery, which is a part of the the Alhamra Arts Council built in the mid ’70s by Nayyar Ali Dada, opened to the public in 1984. The Council also has a 450-seat theatre built on the style of the coliseum which is attached to the main auditorium and a 250-seat lecture and recital hall. While the red brick structure — so typical of Lahore — is magnificent to behold from the outside, nothing prepares you for the treasures to be found in its permanent gallery. Works of Allah Bukhsh, Chughtai, Sadequain, Ahmed Parvez and all the other great masters of the country adorn the gallery’s huge wall space. Just being in the presence of so much genuine art is awe inspiring.

And totally in contradiction to the Alhamra art gallery is Coopra, a small unobtrusive gallery with virtually no faade, housed in the basement of a building on the Mall. Running as a non-commercial gallery, it houses works by new and upcoming artists and a collector with a low budget may easily find a few gems there on very reasonable prices. Though they also have intermittent solo exhibitions by veteran artists and group shows, their displays apart from exhibitions must be viewed if one is looking for a ‘pretty picture’ by a promising artist not yet having found its place in elite art circles.

When Akbar made Lahore his capital seat and enclosed the city within a red brick wall boasting 12 gates, he was perhaps subconsciously protecting its rich environment from being raided. But ironically, while his Fort in the old city has eroded to a dismal state, the newer, urban side of Lahore has maintained the cultural traditions set in his reign through his court scholars, the nauratan. And only in Lahore will one find the choicest culinary delights enjoyed by the elite as well as the common man, which flourish next to a brothel area. And adding to that ambience is the presence of a gallery, right in the middle of the dirtied part of Lahore.

Hopefully, the commercializing taking place with rapid speed even in Lahore and which has already sounded the death knell for fourteen thousand trees of more than 200-years of age, will not sweep this cultural ambience into oblivion.