41 paintings of maestros are being restored at Lahore Arts Council

The Lahore Arts Council (LAC) will achieve a milestone after completing the restoration of 41 damaged paintings of maestros.

These works have been preserved at the Alhamra Art Museum at Cultural Complex, Qaddafi Stadium, officials told Dawn.

They said the process of restoring the paintings of the masters of yesteryears officially started back in 2016 when the council held a grand workshop under the title ‘Saving the Dying Art’. The workshop was a collaborative effort between the Lahore Arts Council and the Danish Center for Culture and Development and introduced many restorers.

“The 33 paintings which have been restored now and eight which are still to be restored are not part of that project. These paintings are from the Punjab Council of Arts and being restored by the restorers who attended that workshop,” said LAC Director Art and Culture Zulfiqar Ali.

The paintings which are under restoration process are by Ana Molka Ahmed, Colin David, Mian Ijaz-ul-Hassan and other acclaimed painters.

Mr Ali said the council had trained 60 or so artists to treat the damaged paintings which is a difficult art. The master artists whose paintings were restored during the workshop included Ustad Allah Bux, Sadequain, Shamza, S. Safdar, Zubaida Agha, Zakia Dil and Saeed Akhtar. The restored paintings were about 50 to 60 years old, he added.

He said an exhibition of the restored paintings would be held in near future and the seasoned and emerging artists would be invited.

The restorers would also brief the audience on their respective projects and the technical process they went through during the treatment of paintings.

Originally published in Dawn, August 29th, 2018