A military leader is how the world views General Pervez Musharraf. But it is his taste for modern art that has begun to open up minds as well as drawing rooms in Pakistan.

In Delhi after a five-day camp at Agra — the city where Musharraf attended the failed summit with Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001 — to celebrate 350 years of the Taj Mahal, young artists from Pakistan acknowledged his contribution to making modern art commercially viable, particularly in conservative Lahore.

R.M. Naeem, a fine arts teacher at the National College of Arts in Lahore, says the President’s interest in art has made it acceptable. “Over the last 10 years, there has been a lot of opening up in Pakistan. People are getting interested in buying art. It is a small nation and India being bigger, there are more opportunities here.

“Having Musharraf has helped because his daughter is an architect in Lahore and his relatives have an art gallery. Suddenly, people want to know more about art. If one buys a painting, people want to know more.”

At the camp organised by Sanjeev Bhargava of the NGO Seher, the Pakistani artists painted alongside well-known Indian names, including Jatin Das, Jairam Patel, Gopi Gajwani and Subrata Kundu, on the theme “Taj by day, Taj by night”. Every once in a while, they took a walk to see the Taj in its different moods.

Rakshanda Atawar, the principal of Hunar Kada Art College in Lahore, agrees that in the last five years, there has been more interest in art in the city that is known to be traditional, unlike Karachi, which is more open.

Another artist from across the border, Rahat Masud, says: “The concept of buying art was not there 10 years back. Change is taking place…. Lahore has a tradition of landscape artists whereas Karachi is more abstract and modern.”

If Musharraf has made the art market exciting in Pakistan, Indian artist Gopi Gajwani is thrilled about the contemporary themes and techniques Pakistani artists are using. Whether it is spray paint work in red and blue against a white background that dominates the upper half of Naeem’s canvas or his androgynous figures locked in an embrace.

“Materially, the Taj doesn’t fascinate me, it is the more spiritual aspect. It is basically a mazaar and I find that painful. The two figures seem to be neither male nor female because in love, the male or female doesn’t matter beyond a point, they are one,” says Naeem.

A master of abstract paintings, Gajwani’s two canvasses dwell on the ethereal quality that surrounds the Taj. The artist captures its silky whiteness by day and the grey aura of the mazaar by night. The dome resembles a woman’s profile, with the engraved kalmas and latticework looking like a necklace.

Jatin Das has powerfully captured the two lovers behind the story of the Taj Mahal.

Concentrating on the silhouettes, Subrata Kundu’s Taj is a study in blue. Calcutta-based artist Aditya Basak shows a white Taj peering down at its rippled reflection in the Yamuna.

But Aparna Swarup has a canvas of an imposing Taj with its thousands of visitors. “It is association of the people with this monument that we are celebrating,” she says.