A HARDLY KNOWN CHUGHTAI SHOW AT HOUSE OF BEGUM SHAHNAWAZ,

ARTICLE ON CHUGHTAI ART BY RAZIA SIRAJUDDIN BEFORE EUROPEAN TOUR

The archives of Chughtai Museum are full of wonderful things and we share them whenever we can with people. We share a pamphlet on Chughtai Art presented by Begum Shahnawaz, with an introduction by Razia Sirajuddin. This article is not known and is before the Introduction she wrote for “Chughtai Paintings” in 1938. A brilliant coverage of Chughtai Art, reflecting the fondness of these two stalwarts for the Art of Chughtai. To our knowledge hardly anyone has even seen it. This was the prelude to a sitting at Begum Shahnawaz house in 1946, when the concept of Alhamra Arts Council was given to people of Pakistan by Chughtai artist. It was the idea of Chughtai and the political force of Jahan Ara Shahnawaz, that the first Art Council of Pakistan came into being. Today a moronic bureaucracy has no room to remember the icons of art and culture in Pakistan.

Razia Sirajuddin was an artist, a literary giant, and a personality which shined all the time. She would appear in public in a saree sort of thing, with real flowers strapped on the clothes as well as her head covering. Her eccentric outlook immediately stopped people in

their track. A charismatic personality, she was adept at understanding Chughtai art. Chughtai himself has written an article on her (a rare thing from him). We have written about her on the blog a few times, but this article has not been touched before in any writing. It is a brand new discovery on her analysis. Enjoy!