COVENTRY.- The Herbert has purchased two artworks for its permanent collection, Bloodlines by Iftikhar Dadi and Nalini Malani and Belsen Head by Raymond Mason. We gave the Herbert £11,500 and £12,500 for the two works respectively. Funding also came in from the Heritage Lottery Fund Collecting Cultures Programme and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund.

These two striking works form part of the Herbert’s Peace and Reconciliation collection, for which the Herbert is currently working on enhancing through an HLF funded project.

Bloodlines, which was created in 1997 to mark the 50th anniversary of the partition of India, is a visually stunning artwork. Gold, crimson and blue sequins have been used to map the Radcliffe lines, which defined the 1947 borders of Pakistan. The work was developed by Indian artist Nalini Malani and Pakistani artist Iftikhar Dadi and it is possibly the first collaborative work between artists from the two countries.

Belsen Head is an unsettling and moving work by Raymond Mason, which was created in response to images released from the concentration camps at the end of the Second World War. The head lying back on a wooden plinth is seemingly screaming in pain or protest. Although inspired from old images, the work has a continuing resonance, reflecting the universal impact of hate and violence.

These works will be displayed in an exhibition in 2012 which will highlight new items bought through the HLF Collecting Cultures project.