‘This country has given me everything’

Akbar, who hails from Udipi in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, came to the UAE more than 20 years ago

Inspired by his love for the country that he now proudly calls home, Akbar Saheb, 51, has dedicated thousands of hours of his time chronicling the country’s achievements through his art.
Akbar, who hails from Udipi in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, came to the UAE more than 20 years ago, and quickly began using his uncanny artistic ability to document the life and achievements of the country’s leadership, which he had become fascinated by before even leaving his home in India.
“I first came to Dubai in 1996, and began working for an agency as an illustrator, doing only drawings,” he told Khaleej Times. “But, even before, I became quite interested in Sheikh Zayed. I’d always read about his achievements in the newspaper. I became quite interested and started buying books about him.”
“When I arrived, I started asking older people about him,” he added. “Within six months of arriving, I decided to do a series of paintings about this leader, and started sketching. I was so inspired by how he united the seven emirates. He built this country from scratch.”
By the time he was finished with the series, in 2004, he had created a 38-painting series about Sheikh Zayed — one for each year of his rule — which he hoped to present to him personally.
“I started in 1997, and finished in 2004. After that, my idea was to present them to Sheikh Zayed, but unfortunately that year I heard the news that he had passed away,” Akbar remembers sadly. “It was my dream to meet him, but unfortunately I could not. For many years, all the oil and canvas paintings were just laying in my studio.”
Aside from Sheikh Zayed, Akbar has also created paintings about some of the UAE’s other leaders, including a 32-part series about His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Social Development. He also has paintings dedicated to the UAE’s fallen martyrs.
His art, he says, is completely driven by his love of the UAE, which he says has given him all that he has ever needed.
“This country has given me everything. I came here alone, and after six months my wife joined me. My family — my three children – have grown up here,” he noted. “The UAE is home for me. Everything is here.... I don’t have any plans to go back. I want to start a gallery here.”
Akbar’s dream, he says, is to be able to display the Sheikh Zayed series, in its entirety, at a museum, such as the upcoming Sheikh Zayed National Museum on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
“I am not a business person. I am a painter. I have no way of contacting the appropriate people, but these paintings must go into the museum,” he said. “I cannot break the series apart.”
bernd@khaleejtimes.com