February 10 marks Sadequain’s 23rd death anniversary. Sadequain Foundation estimates he painted close to 15,000 paintings, murals, calligraphies and drawings. Most of his work was gifted to institutions, individuals, acquaintances, and total strangers. Sadequain, at the time of his death was painting the stupendous ceiling mural at the Frere Hall, which though left incomplete, nonetheless, adorns the ceiling of the historic building.

Sadequain is arguably responsible for the renaissance of Islamic calligraphy in Pakistan. A review of the history of calligraphic art in the country during the decades of the 1950s and ’60s reveals that there was minimal activity in this genre of art form. Syed Amjad Ali wrote in his book, Painters of Pakistan, that after Sadequain’s first exhibition of calligraphies in December 1968, “For next fifteen years or sixteen years, a veritable Niagara of painterly calligraphy flowed from his pen and brush. He initiated painterly calligraphy and set the vogue for it in Pakistan.”

Calligraphic art had enjoyed a revered status in the subcontinent, reaching its pinnacle during the glorious days of the Mughal Empire. But after the downfall of the empire, calligraphic art fell so far out of favour that in post-partition Pakistan, it was considered to be a mere vocational skill and not a serious genre of creative art. Searching for a new form of expression, Sadequain commemorated Ghalib’s anniversary by illustrating his poetry in 1968. To enhance the paintings, he inscribed Ghalib’s verses in Urdu to append the paintings, and that experiment later led to more calligraphic inscriptions in the Arabic language.

In a manner similar to his figurative paintings, Sadequain followed the same principles in his calligraphic art. His calligraphies represent the most radical departure from the established norms for hundreds of years. The centuries-old guarded traditions, watchful eyes of the religious police, or pitfalls of the uncharted waters did not deter him from going where few had ventured before him. He invented his own iconography and produced a dizzying array of calligraphic marvels at such large scales that had not been witnessed in recent history. His art became the most effective ambassador for the country and his impact was so profound, that on a number of occasions, Pakistan was represented in international forums only by Sadequain’s masterpieces.

Special mention must be made of some of Sadequain’s major works, which are spread over Pakistan, India, and the Middle East. He inscribed four versions of complete sets of the beautiful Verse, Sura-e-Rehman; the first two versions of the Verse, which consisted of 31 panels, have been preserved, one at Staff College Lahore and one with a private collector. Another version, consisting of 40 panels was painted on transparent cellophane. The fourth version of the Verse was painted on marble slabs, which Sadequain gifted to the citizens of Karachi in a ceremony held on the lawns of the Frere Hall in 1986. The intent was to place the complete set of 40 marble slabs on permanent display at the Gallery Sadequain of Frere Hall. But soon after Sadequain passed away, all forty panels disappeared from the premises, leaving no trace behind.

During the early 1970s, Sadequain completed several large calligraphies for the historic Lahore Museum, and gifted them to the citizens of Lahore. Eight of these large calligraphic panels, each measuring approximately 20 x 20 feet, are on display in the Islamic Gallery of the museum. He also inscribed Sura-e-Yaseen on to a wooden panel measuring 260 feet long and gifted it to the Islamic Gallery of the Lahore Museum. A large calligraphic mural adorns the power station at Abu Dhabi, which Sadequain completed in 1980.

During his stay in India, end of 1981 through 1982, Sadequain painted several large calligraphic paintings and murals. One of the most significant calligraphic works was the rendition of the 99 panels of Asma-e-Husna (the beautiful names of God) that he inscribed on the circular wall of the rotunda, which towers an imposing five stories high in the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies at Delhi. This rendition of 99 panels is one of the three complete sets he finished in his life. In addition to the calligraphic work at the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies at Delhi, Sadequain painted or sculpted calligraphic works at Aligarh Muslim University, Ghalib Academy, Jamia Millia, and the tomb of Tipu Sultan. In his customary practice, Sadequain gifted all this work to the Indian authorities. In addition to painting the murals and calligraphies in India, he exhibited his works at Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Aligarh, Banaras, and several other cities.

Evelyn Haas, philanthropist, patron of the arts, matriarch of one of the Bay Area’s most prominent families and expert fly-fisherwoman, died Wednesday in San Francisco at age 92.

Mrs. Haas, widow of Walter A. Haas Jr., led the family foundation, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, which has contributed more than $364 million to hundreds of community and cultural organizations that make the Bay Area what it is. They include the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the restoration of Crissy Field and The Chronicle’s Season of Sharing Fund. The Haas family also owned the Oakland Athletics from 1980 to 1995, a period cherished, and missed, by many Bay Area baseball fans.

Friends and civic leaders said that Mrs. Haas was as comfortable wading in a trout stream or walking around Crissy Field as she was enjoying a concert at Davies Symphony Hall or perusing an exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She was passionate about those interests, but more concerned that everyone would get to share them.

“She didn’t like to talk about her philanthropy,” said Ira Hirschfield, president of the foundation. “What was really important to Evie was that it make a difference and touch people’s lives in tangible ways.

“It was about leveling the playing field so that all families could live and raise their families with equality and dignity, to make sure all families had an equal chance to enjoy their lives,” he said.

Greg Moore, executive director of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, said that desire was what drove Mrs. Haas to lead the effort to restore Crissy Field, which was completed in 1999. “Today it is just a beautiful place, which is what she wanted – to create a beautiful place that everyone could use and enjoy.”

From the time she studied for her bachelor’s degree at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Mrs. Haas had a passion for the arts. After she and her husband married and moved to San Francisco in 1940, she grew to love the Symphony and SFMOMA. She was a longtime leader on the museum’s board, and she and her husband were instrumental in raising the $95 million to build the new museum in 1995. He died later that year.

“SFMOMA was the love of her life – except for her husband, Walter, and her children,” said Elaine McKeon, former president of the museum. “But she was just the sweetest person, interested in everyone she met. She was a real mentor to me.”

San Francisco Symphony music director Michael Tilson Thomas said Mrs. Haas, who served on the Symphony board for 40 years, loved classical music and wanted others to learn to love it, too. She helped to do that by funding “Keeping Score: MTT on Music,” a classical music program for children on public radio, television and the Internet.

“You got the impression from Evie that she had a real passion and interest in the Symphony, that it was a delight for her and that she wanted to share it with other people,” Thomas said.

But Haas didn’t confine her interests to the arts and philanthropy. She was an avid fly fisher – an interest she picked up from her husband. In 1979, she co-authored the book “Wade a Little Deeper, Dear,” considered a classic among fly fishers.

“I met her through her foundation,” said John McCosker, senior scientist at the California Academy of Sciences, and a friend, “but I also knew her because she and Wally were mad about fly fishing. That was a side of her most people didn’t know.”

Mrs. Haas is survived by her three children: Robert D. Haas, chairman emeritus and past CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., and his wife, Colleen Gershon Haas; Betsy Haas Eisenhardt, civic leader and volunteer, and her husband, Roy Eisenhardt; and Walter J. Haas, co-chairman of the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and past chairman and CEO of the Oakland Athletics, and his wife, Julie Salles Haas. She is also survived by six grandchildren, Elise Haas, Jesse Eisenhardt, Sarah Eisenhardt, Simone Haas Zumsteg, Charlotte Haas Prime and Walter A. Haas III; great-grandson Andy Zumsteg; and great-granddaughter Olivia Evelyn Prime.

While Saatchi’s new show of Indian art, The Empire Strikes Back, is a talking point in London, the market for Indian art has taken some serious hits. At the height of the boom this was fever-hot, as speculators shifted from Chinese contemporary (which had become very expensive) into Indian art. Prices soared and art funds mushroomed, led by Osian’s, India’s oldest art auction house. Its Rs100 crore (£13m) fund was launched in 2006; among those that followed was the Copal Art fund, which sold investors art based on a price-per-square-foot. Between 2006 and 2008, according to the Indian business newspaper Livemint, some Rs300 crore was invested in art.

But recently Indian artists have, in some cases, lost over 70 per cent of their value, and some funds are failing to deliver promised returns. Osian’s fund closed at the end of last year, but not all investors have been paid; founder Neville Tuli told the FT that they will be paid by February 24 and admitted that the fund was “disappointing”. Osian’s is also mired in a US-based lawsuit with Christie’s, which it accuses of failing to deliver art it had bought; Menaka Kumari Shah, India representative of the firm, said: “We have been seeking to recover a significant debt from an Osian-related party for more than one year. Christie’s intends to review all of its legal remedies in response to these baseless allegations.”

The problem is not confined to art funds; Bodhi Art, one of India’s most flamboyant galleries, has become the highest-profile victim of the bust. At the height of its glory, the gallery had outlets in Berlin, Singapore, New York, Mumbai and New Delhi; now all are closed except Mumbai.

Next week, impressionist and modern art goes under the hammer in London. Christie’s goes first, on Tuesday evening with a 86-lot sale estimated at up to £80m, but the story is more about Sotheby’s sale on Wednesday. This is smaller, with 39 lots but a higher target of £102m, and it boasts three surefire winners. Giacometti’s imposing sculpture “L’Homme qui marche”, a lifetime cast from 1961 estimated at £12m-£18m, could shatter the world record for the artist. It is being sold by the German-based Dresdner, which was bought by Commerzbank last year. Cézanne’s “Pichet et fruits sur une table” (1893-94) is one of the artist’s highly desirable still lifes of apples and while it is unlikely to break the world record for Cézanne (£36.9m, made in 1999) it should still do very well at its estimate of £10m-£15m. The third cracker is a recently restituted Klimt landscape, “Kirche in Cassone” (1913), a highly attractive work with broad appeal, estimated at £12m-£18m.

Auction house specialists report a distinct loosening up of vendors’ willingness to sell, compared to last year. “We’re not talking about a return to boom times yet,” says Christie’s specialist Olivier Camu, “but buyers are buzzing around and general confidence is up.”

While some galleries may be downsizing, the international dealership Hauser & Wirth is expanding in the heart of Mayfair. The gallery has bagged the entire ground floor at 23 Savile Row, site of the former English Heritage headquarters. It will open this autumn with an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois. H&W will use the 12,500 sq ft space for larger shows, much as it did in Coppermill, the Shoreditch building where it exhibited Christoph Büchel and Martin Creed. The new gallery will bring H&W’s count of exhibition spaces to five, with New York, Zurich and three in London (its small Swallow Street space will be abandoned). So: Gagosian, eight; H&W, five, so far. The FT will publish an interview with H&W president Iwan Wirth in its collecting supplement on February 27.
“Nowhereville, USA” is one unkind description of Bentonville, Arkansas, but the town (pop: 20,000) boasts the headquarters of the world’s largest retailer, Walmart. And next year it will see the opening of Crystal Bridges museum, a $50m extravaganza masterminded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton (the sixth-richest American, says Forbes), who has been avidly collecting American art for 20 years. Some of her acquisitions have been controversial, for example when she swooped on Asher Durand’s landscape “Kindred Spirits” (1849) in a sealed-bid deal worth about $35m, whisking it away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Washington, who wanted to keep the painting in public ownership. And she has made a $30m deal with the financially troubled Fisk University in Tennessee over shared ownership of 101 works from the Alfred Stieglitz collection, donated to the university by his estate, subject to a pending appeal by the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.

Crystal Bridges’ latest acquisition is less controversial: Walton Ford’s “The Island”, acquired from New York dealer Paul Kasmin for a sum “well in excess of $600,000”, according to the gallery. It is on display at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (until May 24) while waiting for the completion of its new home.

And never the twain shall meet…Investors and collectors»

Investors and collectors are different species. Which one of these are you?

For some time they had become interchangeable, the collector and investor in art, but as the market fragmented (when it was expected to consolidate), their domains have become exclusive of each other. The current environment is seen as buoyant for the collector as good quality works have returned to the market. For the investor, though, things look just a little grim, particularly since Forbes India’s damaging story on an art fund by Osian’s head Neville Tuli, it turns out, was artificially inflated before it bombed.

Here, then, are the differences between a collector and an investor. Read it with a pinch of salt.

COLLECTOR

# Is interested in particular works by an artist, or specific works of art.

# Would prefer the value of collected art to increase.

# Should the value of a painting or an artist move up, it’s fortuitous, a talking point in a group.

# Collecting is focused purely or loosely on a genre, period, medium, theme or specific artist(s).

# May occasionally sell works to enhance the perceived or academic value of a collection, or to turn around ill-chosen works.
# The collector is a constant visitor at galleries, artists’ openings, art fairs, talks and seminars.

# Collectors come as couples, are often women and only sometimes men. Institutions collect as well.

# Will invariably talk about art on social occasions — it’s a passion.

# Will likely beg, borrow or steal to buy a work they especially like.

# Collateral? “Well, I have this house…”

# If investments in art don’t rise, you won’t be entirely unhappy — there’s the art, at least, that you’d rather have.

# Unlikely to invest in an art fund: “I’d rather have the art.”

# Most likely to say: “Wow! That’s a treat. How much will it cost me?”

# Least likely to say: “I have too much art, I must get rid of some of it.”

# Will you look at that Souza!”

INVESTOR
# Has little or no interest in either an artist or specific works of art.

# Would definitely want the value of art in which he is invested to increase.

# The value of art must definitely move up, but it’s hardly a talking point.

# Collecting is driven purely by an index that factors in hedging of risks.

# Will definitely sell works as soon as the value is realised, as per a chalked-out strategy.

# The investor is rarely sighted at art events other than at talkathons about investment and value.

# Investors are more likely to be men (and sometimes women) from the financial world. Prefer institutional investing.

# Will never talk about art on social occasions — it’s just an investment.

# Will likely organise institutional funding for any purchase.

# The collateral is the art.

# If investments don’t rise, you’ll be anxious – owning the art is poor consolation and a reminder of your failure.

# Likely to invest in an art fund: “provided there is a guarantee of at least the principal and interest”.

# Most likely to say: “I don’t care who painted it, tell me how much it will fetch me three years from now.”

# Least likely to say: “I have too much money, I could buy art with some of it.”

# “Souza who?”

There hasn’t been anything of its sort in Chennai in nearly three decades. National Art Week, which concludes today, saw senior Indian  artists from across the country come together and four iconic cultural institutions — Lalit Kala Akademi, Kalakshetra, Cholamandal Artists’ Village and DakshinaChitra — join hands in a unique celebration of art.

“It was an attempt by the Lalit Kala Akademi to unite the different cultural and art institutions in the city,” said Rm. Palaniappan, regional secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi. “Generally, we all tend to function separately, but this time everyone accepted the proposal without hesitation.”

From January 18 onwards, camps in print-making, sculpture, painting and ceramics were conducted at the four institutions, with the artists of each visiting one another at the different locations and interacting with young, up-and-coming artistes of the city as well.

“Most of us work in the isolation of our studios, so this sort of opportunity to interact not only with artists in our own field but from others too was fantastic,” says Manisha Bhattacharya from New Delhi, who participated in the ceramic camp at Lalit Kala. “To suddenly be part of camps with artists I had grown up idolising, such as K. Laxma Goud or Dakshinamoorthy, was an honour.”

For Akhilesh, the renowned indian  painter from Bhopal, it was almost like an “exchange programme.” “It was a chance to see, discuss our personal ways of looking at art, and learn from the way others work,” says the senior artist who was part of the painting camp conducted at DakshinaChitra. “I was particularly keen to look at the work of young artists in the city, and visited the group at Lalit Kala. What was interesting was the independence of their identity and the diversity of their expression, in spite of working together.”

This year also saw the Lalit Kala Akademi’s private collection of artworks from five years of camps and workshops in the region on display at their premises. The exhibition, concluding today, features a gorgeous collection of paintings, ceramics, sculptures and graphics in a variety of styles reflective of different regional schools and the artists’ own personal visions. A brilliant mix of colours, textures and media, this collection truly serves as a compendium of creativity for the region.

Looking ahead, Lalit Kala Akademi hopes to make National Art Week an annual event, not only in Chennai but in other cities as well, as a nationwide celebration of art and creativity. “In addition, we want to extend the format to include the city’s art galleries and the corporations that support art, and add symposiums, curated exhibitions and retrospectives of senior artists to the roster of events,” says Palaniappan.

The serene beaches, emerald backwaters, lush hill stations, exotic wildlife, waterfalls, sprawling plantations and enchanting art forms of Kerala that charm holidayers from around the world will adorn the country’s superfast train Rajdhani Express.

The 2431/2432 Nizamuddin-Thiruvananthapuram-Nizamuddin Rajdhani Expresses with paintings on tourist attractions of God’s Own Country is to be flagged off by Union Minister for Tourism Kumari Selja from Nizamuddin station on January 17. Kerala Minister for Tourism and Home Kodiyeri Balakrishnan is to attend the programme.

The Rajdhani Express that links New Delhi to the State capitals offers the unique opportunity of experiencing Indian Railways at its best. It is for the first time that the tourist attractions of a State are being featured on the coaches of the country’s prestigious train.

“It is part of the innovative promotion strategy to enhance more visibility for the destination and unique tourism products the State has to offer and to attract domestic tourists to Kerala in the coming days,” Director of Tourism M. Shivasankar told The Hindu.

All the 17 coaches of the superfast fully air-conditioned Rajdhani Express have been painted with distinct images of Kerala. As the train traverses Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka en route to Thiruvananthapuram and back, Mr. Shivasankar said, it would promote the tourist destinations in a big way.

Tourism Secretary V. Venu said it was the most innovative and exciting promotion strategy adopted by Kerala Tourism till date. “This is going to do wonders for the State,” he said. The State had managed to adorn the colours of Kerala at a whopping cost of Rs.1.2 crore and the promotion would be for the next six months.

The strategy to attract domestic tourists in a big way comes in the wake of the apprehensions about the decline in international tourist arrivals due to recession. Kerala Tourism is all set to kick off a three-month campaign across the country from February 1 to attract more domestic travellers. 

The Rajdhani Express that links New Delhi to the State capitals offers the unique opportunity of experiencing Indian Railways at its best. It is for the first time that the tourist attractions of a State are being featured on the coaches of the country’s prestigious train.

A dispute which saw the auction of 1903 Picasso painting owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber halted, has been resolved.

The work, Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, was to be auctioned in 2006 but it was withdrawn at the last minute over claims about its Nazi-era history.A German man, Professor Julius Schoeps, claimed his ancestor was forced to sell the work during the 1930s.It had been expected to fetch up to $60m (£37.6m) when it was listed for sale at Christie’s, New York.

A judge stopped the sale after Professor Schoeps, an heir to Berlin banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, claimed his ancestor had to sell the Picasso at a low price after being forced to flee his mansion.At the time, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation said the claims were “utterly spurious”.
Settlement
Mr von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, whose family had converted from Judaism to Christianity, died in 1935.In a statement on Thursday, his heirs announced they had reached a settlement agreement with the trustees of The Andrew Lloyd Webber Art Foundation, relinquishing all claims of title to the painting.
The foundation said it was “pleased” by the annoucement.It is not known what will happen to the painting now.Lord Lloyd-Webber bought the painting in 1995 for £18m. At the time he said the artwork was “mesmeric”.
The musician’s foundation had planned to donate the money raised from the auction to a variety of arts charities.

It was a colourful palette for the visual art community as artists, galleries, collectors and academics had something to remember 2009 for. From the increase in art shows to the emergence of new media art, to styles that were either refined or invented, it seemed like the year was just what the visual arts needed. It was also a year of international reckoning with the Art Expo holding at the National Museum in Lagos and sculptor El Anatsui receiving the 25,000 euro Prince Claus Award. Competing for the headlines in the past year were the death of Suzanne Wenger, aka Adunni Olorisha; the murder of art promoter and curator at Pendulum Gallery, Peter Areh, and art teacher and sculptor Lamidi Fakeye, who passed away on Christmas Day.

Photography and new art

In retrospect, photography deserves praise for making a bold showing. Major events like the Nigerian Art Competition recognised this genre of new media. In particular, there was a photography exhibition at the Omenka Gallery featuring top brass in Nigerian photography: Tam Fiofori, Amaize Ojeikere, Sunmi Smart-Cole and Kelechi Amadi Obi. There was also George Osodi’s “Drivers Dexterity”. Other representatives of new media art were performance artist Jelili Atiku’s “Agbo Rago”, and Emeka Ogboh’s sound installation.

Titled “Identity: an imagined state”, the first video art exhibition also took place at the Centre for Contemporary Art. Rom Isichei’s “State of Being” and Victor Ehikhamenor’s “Mirrors and Mirages” are examples of exhibitions with the use of material and new ideas as a focal point in 2009. Pop art was indigenised in the hands of Diseye Tantua and Lemi Ghariokwu with their exhibitions at the Signature Gallery and Artistic License respectively. Nnena Okore’s use of discarded, local material in “Of Topography and Earth…” was one of the major shows of 2009.

The year of the international

Organised by the Art Galleries Association of Nigeria and the National Gallery of Art, the International Art Expo featured 36 galleries from around the country and, for the first time, included a gallery from Benin Republic. In October, it rained works from about 200 artists as the Society of Nigerian Artists held their yearly juried exhibition tagged “October Rain”. A month later, Abuja became a beehive as African visual artists assembled in the capital city for the African Regional Summit and Exhibition on Visual Arts that featured 50 artists from Nigeria and 23 from other African countries. In November, Nigeria’s Uche Okpai-Iroha beat other photographers from across Africa to win the highest prize at the Bamako Biennale. The National Art Competition with the theme “The Nigeria I see” ended with the winners going home with N750, 000 and the opportunity to have their works exhibited. The Visual Arts Society of Nigeria’s ‘Open House’ exhibition took place at the Mydrim Gallery amidst controversy.

Schools and books

Nigerian Art schools did not fail to represent as every school put its cards on the table. YabaTech led the way closely followed by the Auchi School. The Benin School experienced an awakening and the Osogbo School held its own, even after the death of its matron Suzanne Wenger. The school held a show at Quintessence in Lagos and Rahmon Olugunna’s works brought a contemporary edge to the Osogbo Art school.

The launch of Sylvester Ogbechie’s book, ‘Ben Enwonwu: The Making of a Modernist’ and that of ‘Jewels of Nomadic Images’ on Bruce Onobrakpeya’s art were some of the artistic landmarks of 2009. In December, the Goethe Institut launched a collection of images of artists invading public spaces titled ‘Lagos: Art in public spaces.’

As things stand, the visual art community looks set to draw from the gains and losses of 2009 for an improved 2010.

Art can help bridge the “political differences” between India and some of its neighbours, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said on Wednesday in an apparent reference to Pakistan.

“We have seen in so many ways that politics can divide neighbours from each other,” he said inaugurating a handicrafts exhibition of South Asian countries, including Pakistan. “In the South Asian region, we have good political relations amongst our neighbours but there are sadly few lingering tensions of which we were reminded not so long ago in our own country as we commemorated the anniversary of an incident sadly which came from neighbouring land,” Tharoor said.

He did not specify but was clearly referring to the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, 2008 which originated from Pakistan.

“I am really impressed by the products from Pakistan and other countries. Sharing of creativity has the potential to turn relations across political divisions,” Tharoor said.

As he went around to see the exhibition, the minister appreciated the ‘truck’ art from Pakistan and said India could learn about the “wonderful” work.

He had special praise for women artisans, saying the networks built by them are “more deeper and more effective than those built by men.”