LAHORE: The permanent collection of legendary painter Shakir Ali, housed at Shakir Ali Museum in Garden Town, is finally going to be restored after a long delay.

According to the officials, the collection, comprising 18 paintings and eight drawings, will be restored by internationally acclaimed miniaturist Ustad Bashir Ahmed who also happens to be the former principal of the National College of Arts. All the 26 art pieces have got deteriorated over for different reasons.

The museum administration had sent proposals to the head office, the Pakistan National Council of Arts, during the last few years for the restoration and preservation of these paintings but nothing was done. After Jamal Shah, himself an artist, became the director general of the Pakistan National Council of Arts, he took the initiative on the recommendations of Shakir Ali Museum Director Amna Pataudi and started process of restoration and preservation of these artworks.

Talking to Dawn about the project, Ms Pataudi says the paintings are usually done on canvas but these artworks of Shakir Ali are on paper. She says the project had had three phases; evaluation of the artworks, documentation of paintings through numbering and photography and identification of problems in them with reference to their material and damage.

Ms Pataudi adds that Ustad Bashir, being a through professional, applied particular material and gadgets to documentation the artworks and identify the problems.

“If some paintings have lost colour, others have problems in their frames. Some artworks have cracks and some have other reasons of deterioration.”

She says the third phase of restoration and preservation is almost complete and after Eid, the museum would come up with an estimated cost for the actual preservation and restoration process of these artworks.

She says the precious collection of Shakir Ali is being saved from further deterioration through the project.

Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2017