Art collector Dr Furqan Ahmed launches third book

‘The Later’, the third publication from art collector Dr Furqan Ahmed, a gastroenterologist by profession, was launched at the Canvas Gallery on Wednesday. The book explores contemporary art from Pakistan and postcolonial space.

The event was told that Dr Ahmed belonged to the medicine profession but at the same time he was an art enthusiast who collected contemporary art and published books based on his collections.

His third book is about how the colonial history relates to contemporary art in Pakistan. The book is a collection of essays, narrating what British in their colonial era did to fine arts in South Asia and how artists depicted colonial and postcolonial themes in their works.

Dr Ahmed has one of the largest contemporary art collections in Pakistan. He bought artworks from different art galleries and shows and has included some 40 to 50 portraits in this book. “Each portrait has an interesting story to tell,” he said, adding that the book attempts to explain how those artworks have been influenced by the colonial history.

All the portraits in the book are about colonial history and depict postcolonial society in Pakistan. As the collector and publisher, Dr Ahmed asked various authors to contribute in the book. For instance, art historian Salima Hashmi has written about how the art of painting changed during the British period in the Subcontinent.

Dr Shabnam Khan, PhD expert in textiles, has written about how the art of textile-making evolved during the colonial period and how textiles were used by both colonisers and the colonised as weapons against each other.