This is a large triptych with a busy, almost playful plethora of figures and script.

Lahore is a city with thirteen gates which, over the centuries, have been points of entry, invasion, and, during the Partition of 1947, flight. This is what this extraordinary work chronicles. It could be depicting some rural idyll, but there is violence, destruction, and mayhem, with people being decapitated by sword-wielding horsemen. The chaos of invasion and flight are formally contained within the famous Lahore gates. The uppermost border, a complete and stylized row of flames, depicts a city surrounded by a fire that threatens to engulf it.


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