Retrospectives of important artists and commemorative anniversaries are regular features in the art world. But then, there are rare exhibitions occasionally, like the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust’s show, where they’ve decided to showcase 20 years of their work, in a single exhibition. “It is a difficult task and important too,” says artist Ram Rahman, as he steps into a small garage at Ferozeshah Road that has acted as his workstation for the last few days. This is where he has been ideating the exhibition titled Image Music Text— Tracing the Secular. To take place at MF Husain Gallery at Jamia Millia Islamia University from January 15 onwards, this is intended to give the public a glimpse into the varied activities organised by SAHMAT since its inception, after Hashmi’s death, in 1989. “The selection will feature important projects. It will be representative of the work done by SAHMAT and through it the larger social, economic and political concerns that require attention,” states Rahman, as he glances across the room and points to a faded umbrella suspended from the roof. Painted with the letters ‘Let Us Defend Our Secular Tradition’, this was distributed by SAHMAT to those who attended a meeting organised in Ayodhya in 1993, after the Babri Masjid demolition. “Secularism is still a concern. This umbrella belongs to one of the SAHMAT supporters, thankfully we managed to trace it,” he notes.

Putting together the exhibition has revived several old memories for Rahman and involved coordination with numerous gallerists, artists and collectors who have been associated with SAHMAT. So if he managed to source Jatin Das’s oil on canvas titled In Memory of Safdar Hashmi — that was part of the first exhibition organised by SAHMAT in 1989 — from a collector, Vivan Sundaram is editing a video that films the exhibition titled ‘Ways of Resisting’ that took place in 2003 at Rabindra Bhavan. Letters written by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Vijay Tendulkar in support of SAHMAT will be exhibited in a Venetian box and suspended on the walls will be posters published by SAHMAT. “These do not merely chronicle events, they also document history,” observes Rahman, looking at a poster that gives details of Bhagat Singh’s life, published by SAHMAT in 2007 to commemorate the birth centenary of Bhagat Singh.

Also on display at the 3000 sq ft gallery in Jamia will be watercolors by artists like Nilima Sheikh, Mona Rai, Surendran Nair, Akkitham Vasudevan and Mickey Patel done for children and poetry books penned by Hashmi and published by SAHMAT. “The artwork has never been exhibited before. It has been in files at our office for years now,” smiles Rahman. As he looks forward to transport the artwork from the garage to the gallery, and start setting the display for the commemorative exhibition, he assures that the year ahead has a lot more lined up from the organisation.