KARACHI, June 16: Sunday’s 36.8 degrees Centigrade did not keep art lovers from visiting the Mohatta Palace museum where more than 200 non-calligraphic art works by Sadequain have been on display for the past three months.

The exhibition, titled “The Holy Sinner Sadequain 1954 - 1987”, began on Feb 28.

The 16 rooms of the Mohatta Palace museum feature 214 paintings by the Amroha-born artist.

Mohatta Palace museum staff, who quietly guide visitors around different rooms, told Dawn that some serious art lovers had visited the exhibition more than 30 times! “A large number of people, particularly students, frequent the Mohatta Palace museum. For a serious art student, it is extremely difficult to see and appreciate more than 200 Sadequains at one go. They, therefore, come again and again.”

Sulaiman Asad, a student of an art school in Lahore, said he had read about the Mohatta Palace museum exhibition in the papers. “I came to Karachi last week. Friday’s blast near the US consulate scared the living daylights out of me. But this visit to Sadequain’s exhibition has helped me regain my composure and peace of mind.”

He said he was most impressed — actually awed — by the phenomenal mural by Sadequain, titled “Treasures of Time”. “All our worries and all the petty things men petulantly squabble over seem worthless when a person looks at the magnificent mural, showing gifted men either creating something — a poem, a chemical formula or a philosophical idea — or inventing something for the benefit of mankind.”

Another visitor, Fauzia Naqvi, a working woman, said she liked the exhibition brochure very much. “The brochure is very instructive, especially for the uninitiated. For instance, it offers a very insightful comment about “A Destitute King” in room VA.”

The brochure says: “The king of spades portrayed in ‘A Destitute King’ has no partner, his forlorn expression a measure his loneliness, and he endures a crow that has nested in his hair. The empty pitch-black canvas beside the king represents the missing partner card. The jack has an ugly face and scheming eyes. The royal couple were happy till the king became destitute and lost his kingdom. When the jack of diamonds became rich the queen left the king for the jack. The jack of diamonds sports a crown with the Mercedes emblem, a reference to becoming rich.’’

The brochure also has some light-hearted comments. For instance, about a painting in room VII, it says: “The joyous ‘Behind the Curtain: The Artist and His Model’ is a depiction of the artist and his model. Note the artist’s hands mischievously resting on the model’s shoulder as they view the recently concluded from behind the curtain.”