Srinagar gets its first private art gallery, courtesy COVID

Lockdown forced urban planner to paint Kashmir of his youth and eventually open the facility

The two-year pause imposed by the pandemic forced a Srinagar-born and Saudi Arabia-based urban planner  to look at life and Kashmir differently. He started painting Kashmir from his memories of the 1980s and eventually decided to dedicate the first ever private art gallery to artists of Kashmir.

“There was not much to do during the COVID lockdown. My daughter in Dubai bought me paint and a brush. It took me to the beautiful locations of Kashmir that I visited in 1983 as part of my research project at the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. It was like rediscovering Kashmir as well as myself,” Iajaz Naqshbandi, 63, told  The Hindu.

He was able to produce 24 oil paintings, mostly landscapes with serene, unpolluted and virgin locations. Many of them are already sold.

“There is a deliberate attempt to keep urbanisation away in my works. My paintings are coming out of anger and not pleasure. The calmness and the pristine beauty have been already tarnished by urbanisation. Even old, traditional and indigenous architecture is vanishing. Kashmir has stark architectural resemblance with Turkey, which has managed to preserve it. In Kashmir, everything is getting bulldozed,” said Mr. Naqshbandi.

His artwork is both a lament and a clarion call. “My artwork speaks of what has been lost. The new generation needs to come forward to preserve our legacy, whether in natural beauty or architecture. For that, they need to be re-introduced to them again,” he added.

To fill the gap with the new generation, he had dedicated a registered art gallery at Srinagar’s Regal Chowk, which was thrown open last Thursday for all the art lovers of Kashmir with his works on display. 

“I want people to use this space. It will also help us de-stress ourselves by taking us away from the other realities we live in Kashmir. I want people to rediscover their roots,” Mr. Naqshbandi, who has worked with a French company as a project manager, said.