Restoration work: Lahore Museum to send two more to India for training

[Edevelop]

LAHORE:
The Lahore Museum is set to send two more people to India for training in painting preservation so that they can join the team working on restoring the Sadequian mural which was installed at the museum’s entrance. The decision to send additional staff was taken six months ago after detailed documentation of the mural was completed.
Museum officer Uzma Usmani and artist Mumtaz Hussain had been sent to New Delhi from June to August, 2012, to train in oil painting restoration. The officials trained at Indian National Trust for Arts and Culture Heritage’s (Intach) painting conservation facility. Upon their return, Usmani and Hussain started documenting the mural.
Usmani said the board had decided that more people were needed to work on the mural. “Even four people may not be enough. … Mumtaz and I were the first to be sent for such a training. Even with four people working full time, restoration may take three to five years,” she said.

Conservation Officer Hafiz Abdul Azeem said that Usmani and Hussain were not trained specifically for the mural restoration project. He added it was only when the documentation ended that the administration realised that a conservationist with knowledge of chemicals should be supervising the project.
Azeem said he was made the project manager a month ago. He said he and painter Saeed Ghani will now be sent to Intach for training specific to treating the mural. The two will take along technical reports and detailed mural documentation so that the training is focused on repairing the damaged parts of the mural. The course is four months long.
Lahore Museum Deputy Director Khawaja Khursheed said it was incorrect to suggest that the training Usmani and Hussain had received was not specific enough and that the two people being sent now would get more specialised training.
The 16-member board, he said, had realised early that the task they had set out would be arduous. The plan had always been to send two more people once the first two returned from their training.
Usmani and Hussain will begin the work while Azeem and Ghani will be trained at Intach, he said, adding that clearance for their travel documents had yet to come from India.

“We have also asked for an additional Rs 4million as Rs15 million will not be sufficient to complete this project,” he said.
Segregation of separate area in the museum’s conservation laboratory for work on the mural is almost complete. Restoration work on the mural might start by the beginning of April.
The 48-panel mural, Evolution of Mankind, was installed at the museum’s ceiling in 1973. It was removed about three years ago after a portion collapsed. The panels, each measuring eight feet by six feet, were wrapped in plastic and stored in the museum’s basement.
The mural collapsed from damage caused by exposure to sun. Rainwater and a termite attack had worsened the damage.

Restoration work: Lahore Museum to send two more to India for training – The Express Tribune

 

[veekysingh]

good news. we are always ready to help you

 

[Markus]

Yes , pls give them training and lets not charge them, otherwise where will the poor souls go ?

 

[DroneAcharya]

LAHORE:
The Lahore Museum is set to send two more people to India for training in painting preservation so that they can join the team working on restoring the Sadequian mural which was installed at the museum’s entrance. The decision to send additional staff was taken six months ago after detailed documentation of the mural was completed.

Interesting to see this mural in Banaras Hindu University by Sadequain.

This one in National Geophysical Research Institute Hyderabad is also interesting.

Always a pleasure to see the creativity juices of a genius at work.

 

[Spring Onion]

Yes , pls give them training and lets not charge them, otherwise where will the poor souls go ?

They will transform into Markus.

 

[Mech]

Great.

I just hope people dont here start frothing when Indian immigration authorities and police services start acting bitchy. They always do when it comes to pakistanis in India.

 

[Spring Onion]

Great.

I just hope people dont here start frothing when Indian immigration authorities and police services start acting bitchy. They always do when it comes to pakistanis in India.

why dont they act like human ))))))).

 

[Ayush]

we should learn from each other.

 

[Mech]

why dont they act like human ))))))).

They don't. Not when there are pakistanis involved.

I'm not even saying this for trolling purposes.

 

[F.O.X]

Lets they get better Treatment then our Cyclist did recently.

 

[Markus]

They will transform into Markus.

No, they will instead transform into Farzana Shah who goes to India, has fun and after going back to Pakistan, starts cursing India.

 

[Xracer]

Yes , pls give them training and lets not charge them, otherwise where will the poor souls go ?

Promise

LAHORE: The restoration of the Sadequain mural covering the ceiling of the Lahore Museum has begun, two years after it was brought down and put in storage because of damage from overexposure and termites.

Lahore Museum restoration officer Uzma Usmani and painter Mumtaz Hussain were sent to a painting conservation facility at the Indian National Trust for Arts and Culture Heritage (Intach) in New Delhi for training in June. They returned at the end of August and have now begun the restoration process.

“It is our first project. We are no experts; we just learned some tips and have to be careful in applying them,” said Usmani, who is also the exhibition officer at the museum.

“We are still in the phase of documenting the mural,” said Usmani. “The restoration may take up to five years because of the scale of the work. This is also the first time such a restoration of a historic painting is being undertaken in Pakistan.”

“Documentation is an important phase for future restoration. Once finished, we will get to detailed examination of the mural to see to what work is required. Some panels of the mural may require chemical treatment, some may require lining or fixing of the flaking paint. The restoration steps and fixing strategy varies with each panel,” she said.

The famous mural, which depicts the evolution of mankind, consisted of 48 panels measuring six by six feet and had adorned the ceiling at the entrance of the museum since Sadequain finished it in 1973.

Painter Mumtaz Hussain, who is working with the museum on contract for restoring the mural, said it was a long and tedious process. “It is in a fragile state. During the training, I fixed two 19th century paintings and it took about two months. This has 48 panels. It could take years,” he said.

Hussain said though he did not have much experience, he was confident that the course in India had enabled him to do the task. “I have complete confidence I can do the restoration work,” he said.

He said proper restoration work would begin after the mural was completely documented and the assessment of what type of work was needed was finished. “Currently we are making lists of the materials we will need,” he said.

The restoration officer said that the museum lacked work stations and she had proposed some alteration in the museum’s lab so the panels could be accommodated there. The library has been suggested as a temporary work space until the changes can be made to the lab. A technical committee headed by Saleema Hashmi, formed to supervise the mural’s restoration, will take up the matter next week.

Khawaja Khursheed, the museum’s deputy director, said that Rs20 million in funding allocated for the project in 2010 had been received.



The famous mural, which depicts the evolution of mankind, had adorned the ceiling at the entrance of the museum since Sadequain finished it in 1973