A FIFTY-year-old art workshop-cum-studio, which has been witness to an artistic journey of the country’s iconic artist, Shahid Sajjad, and which saw many monumental work executed, is now falling prey to urban land mafia, which seems bent upon demolishing the workshop and converting the piece of land into a commercial project.

Shahid Sajjad carried out his artistic pursuits at the venue for five decades.

The Pakistan National Council of Arts, the federal body, mandated to promote art scene in the country is silent. Similarly the Ministry of Culture and their provincial counters are also surprisingly silent on the issue, as no one has raised any voice in an effort to protect the site and to stop the artistic disaster.

Apart from a small group of art lovers, no other segment of society has come forward to record its voice to preserve and protect the legacy of the country’s great artist. Even the art collectors are silent.

Sajjad’s achievements were many, but his painstaking work of bronze casting was simply unparalleled. The piece now decorates a wall in an army establishment at Nowshera. He was also among the few sculptors whose wood carved piece was selected to be erected in the main venue of Seoul Olympics.

Shahid was one of those few artists of the country whose professional honesty and integrity put him on a high pedestal in the art world. His work place needs to be protected.

Jaffer Bilgrami

Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2018