LAHORE: A Pakistani professor and master of watercolor in Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital, is using cityscape painting and his memory to preserve the city's disappearing skyline, known for sprawling architectural marvels left over from the Mughal Empire.
From the Mosque of Wazir Khan, which gets its name from the Governor of the Punjab who built it in 1634 during the reign of Shah Jahan, to the deep pink sandstone Badshahi Mosque, arguably second only to the Taj Mahal as an example of Mughal architectural genius, and the red brick fortifications of Akbar's Fort, the rich confection of a city in many ways evokes the deep hues and nostalgia of a miniature painting. Now, Ajaz Anwar is painstakingly trying to recreate and preserve the majesty of its crumbling buildings through his work.
A main character in his art is the city’s walled historic core whose beauty and character have been threatened in recent years by a population boom and a wave of new construction.
For Anwar, his work is an attempt to portray Lahore’s lost beauty and create in others the sense of wanting to preserve their history.
"It’s an effort to bring awareness," he told Arab News. "I belong to the city, and I know the history. It saddens me to see Lahore being destroyed."
All of the defining structures of Lahore's heritage pictured in his paintings have personal weight not only for Anwar but also many others who have spent their lives in the cultural heart of Pakistan, and especially in the walled city.
One of his paintings shows the 17th-century Chitta Darwaza (White Gate), which used to be known as Delhi Gate and served as the main entry point to Lahore. It is the most impressive of the six of 13 portals that are still standing.
"I lived in the Walled City, it was my neighborhood and I had always been fascinated by the gates of Lahore which were erected to stop invaders entering the city," Anwar said.
Another gate featured by Anwar is Bhatti Gate.
"I chose to preserve this gate through watercolor, because just outside it was the mausoleum of Sufi saint Ali Hajweri where I used to walk past every day," he said. "I used to live nearby; I would see the tomb daily from my house."
At one point, in the early 1900s, one of the most famed Urdu poets, Alama Iqbal, also lived near the gate which is now hidden behind roadside stalls, political posters, hanging electric wires and weeds.
Another important building for Anwar is the Dinga Singh building and its iconic clocktower on Mall Road.
“The Dinga Singh building fascinated me because it was built in 1927 when very few people had watches,” he said. “It was the first of the buildings which had a clock tower, people used to visit the building to see what time it was."
Anwar is particularly nostalgic for the city’s colorful jharokhas, or stone windows projecting from the walls, overlooking the streets and markets.
"People used to sit in jharokas and look across the street," the artist said. "It was one of their entertainments, sitting in jharokas and speaking to the people in the neighborhood,."
Now, even as he paints jharokas in his work in vivid colors, he does not see life in the windows.
"To me it’s a portrayal of a dying city," he said.
Kamran Lashari, director general of Walled City of Lahore Authority that oversees conservation in the old city, agreed that Anwar's work was the portrayal of a "culture that has died."
"Professor Anwar used his imagination to depict those times," Lashari said. "But they no longer exist."