Pakistani art gets global access
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Pakistani art gets global access
By Bisma Fawad Ahmed
To most people, a gallery is a building that houses art. I too had the same notion, until I stumbled upon Gandhara Art, www.gandhara-art.com , Pakistans first virtual (on-line) art gallery introducing Pakistani painters and their art to the international art scene.
The sponsors of Gandhara-Art see it as a movement to bring Pakistani contemporary art to the world. It aims at providing local artists with opportunities to exhibit their art beyond borders to a much larger audience. And this global audience in turn is provided a wide range of Pakistani art easily acquired by the click of a button. The on-line gallery is complemented by offices in Karachi and Hong Kong which has become the hub for Asian art.
The website provides the convenience of viewing art at leisure and offers easy door-step delivery anywhere in the world. Most of the art displayed on the website is sourced directly from the artists and in some cases from other galleries and reputable sources.
The launch of this virtual art gallery took place recently and it presently showcases Pakistans contemporary art scene with 34 pieces of art under n exhibition, titled, Ibteda The Beginning. Covering the length and breadth of the country, the present group show includes living legends such as Gulgee, senior artists like Jamil Naqsh, the cubist Mansur Rahi, and the prodigous Mashkoor Raza. Extremely versatile women artists are represented by Nahid Raza and Hajra Mansur in addition to Wahab Jaffers contemporary ladies and Mohammad Kazims ancient Indus Valley women. Contemporary talent is also represented by the water colors of GN Qazi.
The most interesting design feature of the website may just be the simplest, and that is the ease it provides to the browser. A simple click on the home page takes one to the current exhibition. A larger image of the art work appears by clicking on the painting itself and the ‘search feature provides the option of finding a favorite painting on the basis of various categories such as the artist name, medium, style, price etc.
For those browsers who choose to register with the website there are two categories to opt for. My Artist gives them the opportunity to create a list of favorite artists and My Gallery helps the collector to display his favorite paintings from the website. Another fun feature is ‘send to a friend through which a preferred painting can be emailed to a friend. The sidebar, reading Artists profiles and backgrounds helps in making research easier when making a purchase decision.
The painting images are displayed against a dark background with relevant information captioned below the image, such as the name of the artist, the medium of the exhibit, its size and most importantly its price. The prices are in both Pak Rupees and US $ providing ease to the buyers here in Pakistan as well as expatriates and art lovers at large.
Gandhara-Art is the brainchild of Amna Naqvi who did her MBA from LUMS and pursued a banking career in Pakistan and in Indonesia. After having worked in the corporate world for many years she traded in her career to raise a family. Amna is an avid art collector and has a vast private collection of her own ranging from subcontinental giants such as Sadequain, Gulgee, Naqsh, M. F. Hussain, Haider Raza and Souza plus work from more than thirty Pakistani artists, to Asian masters like the Indonesian Effandi and Chinese Xie Heng Xing to name a few.
The idea for Gandhara-Art emerged from Amnas personal collection. Living abroad she understood the frustration that expatriates and art lovers felt when looking to purchasing art from Pakistan, and the question remained is there an easy way to acquire Pakistani art for those who are not regular visitors to Pakistan? Is there a website they could browse? How could Pakistani art become a part of their lives?
The answer though took some hard work on Amnas part but also great pride and satisfaction in knowing that Gandhara Art brings Pakistani art and artists the recognition they so deserve. I thought why not give people the ease to acquire Pakistani Art from the comfort of their homes, but more importantly our art is hardly represented internationally heres my chance to be an ambassador for Pakistani art.
