Modern Art in Pakistan examines interaction of space, tradition, and history to analyse artistic production in Pakistan from the 1950s to recent times. It traces the evolution of modernism in Pakistan and frames it in a global context in the aftermath of Partition. A masterful insight into South Asian art, this book will interest researchers, scholars, and students of South Asian art and art history, and Pakistan in particular. Further, it will be useful to those engaged in the fields of Islamic studies, museum studies, and modern South Asian history.
This pioneering work traces the emergence of the modern and contemporary art of Muslim South Asia in relation to transnational modernism and in light of the region's intellectual, cultural, and political developments. Art historian Iftikhar Dadi here explores the art and writings of major artists, men and women, ranging from the late colonial period to the era of independence and beyond. He looks at the stunningly diverse artistic production of key artists associated with Pakistan, including Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Zainul Abedin, Shakir Ali, Zubeida Agha, Sadequain, Rasheed Araeen, and Naiza Khan. Dadi shows how, beginning in the 1920s, these artists addressed the challenges of modernity by translating historical and contemporary intellectual conceptions into their work, reworking traditional approaches to the classical Islamic arts, and engaging the modernist approach towards subjective individuality in artistic expression. In the process, they dramatically reconfigured the visual arts of the region. By the 1930s, these artists had embarked on a sustained engagement with international modernism in a context of dizzying social and political change that included decolonization, the rise of mass media, and developments following the national independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. Bringing new insights to such concepts as nationalism, modernism, cosmopolitanism, and tradition, Dadi underscores the powerful impact of transnationalism during this period and highlights the artists' growing embrace of modernist and contemporary artistic practice in order to address the challenges of the present era.
Accompanying the first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to contemporary art from Pakistan, this dynamic catalogue provides a groundbreaking look at recent and current trends in Pakistani art. Hanging Fire covers a fascinating range of subjects and media, from installation and video art to sculpture, drawing, and paintings in the "contemporary miniature" tradition. Essays by distinguished contributors from a variety of fields, including Salima Hashmi, Pakistani-American sociologist and historian Ayesha Jalal, and the celebrated novelist Mohsin Hamid, place contemporary Pakistani art in a cultural, historical, and artistic perspective. The book's title, Hanging Fire, alludes to the contemporary economic, political, and social tensions--both local and global--from which these artists find their creative inspiration. It may also suggest to the viewer to delay judgment, particularly based on assumptions or preconceived notions about contemporary society and artistic expression in Pakistan today. Distributed for the Asia Society Museum Exhibition Schedule: Asia Society and Museum (9/10/09 - 1/3/10)
A superb art book of one of the most arresting art movements in the world today Pakistan’s contemporary art scene is arguably the most exciting in South Asia. Wellknown curator, artist and teacher Salima Hashmi gives us a superb overview in this lavishly designed book, which includes interviews with artists such as Rashid Rana and pieces by writers like Kamila Shamsie and Mohsin Hamid.
Nutidige pakistansk malerkunst sat i en historisk og kunstnerisk perspektiv. Forfatteren, der er amerikaner har taget doktorgrad i asiatisk kunsthistorie. Emnet for hendes afhandling var den berømte pakistanske maler Muhammad ʻAbdurrahmān Cughtai
"As boundaries slowly dissolve and interactive realities become evident, the cultures of India and Pakistan are beginning to draw attention. Recent exchanges have taken place in the realm of music, cinema, and other cultural forms. Moreover, both nations share a heritage of Mughal miniatures, Rajasthani and Pahari art, and are bound together by history and the problematics of the present. The contemporary art of the two countries, in all its vitality, today has a new identity. The illustrated book reveals the heterogenous, complex, and vibrant life of the subcontinent of South Asia that is reflected through both Pakistani and Indian art." "In the first part of the book, Salima Hashmi introduces the art practices of Pakistan, since Partition, and their historical background. She goes on to discuss the subversive work of women artists, who have recently asserted themselves. The section ends with an overview of artists who have blended rather uniquely the miniature tradition with contemporary trends." "The second part by Yashodhara Dalmia, begins with the historical development of art in India from the turn of the twentieth-century to the present. There follows a focus on the Progressive Artists' Group, which leaned heavily towards modernism in the fifties, and remains of paramount importance today."--Jacket.
The Citizens Foundation (TCF) is a professionally managed, non-profit organization set up in 1995 in Karachi by a group of citizens who wanted to bring about positive social change through education. Twenty two years on, TCF is one of Pakistan's leading and award-winning organizations for the education of less privileged communities. The Italian Friends of The Citizens Foundation (IFTCF) in Milan presents this first ever group exhibition "Art for Education" showcasing 60 Pakistani artists, internationally acclaimed and talented emerging, who have all donated their artworks in support of quality secular education for disadvantaged children in Pakistan. Held at a prestigious museum in Milan, this groundbreaking show is curated by two renowned South Asian art writers and specialists Salima Hashmi and Rosa Maria Falvo. Few intitiatives in the contemporary art world engage the direct relationship between art and education. And fewer still celebrate the status and power of both fields to address and stimulate positive change for global issues such as gender, geopolitics, ethnicity and social responsibility. In this exhibition art is truly at the service of education, and education is the tool used by art, through artists and their audiences, to cultivate the hearts and minds of two very different realities.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, a growing number of Pakistani artists embraced the nations perceived visual languages and political, social, and cultural history to interrogate and unpack Pakistans contemporary society and identity. The fruits of this shifting and mixing were works of art that turned artistic and societal traditions, from miniature painting to matrimonial rites, on their sides even as they upheld their significance. Through their works,artists examined and expressed the complicated nature of Pakistani national and cultural identities by looking at the societys most volatile concerns. The artists did not simply present these critical issues; they played with them. It is this playful contemporary artwork that this book analyses within acontext of art practices in Pakistan, pedagogical methods at art schools in the nation, and the impact of larger historical events and social processes: colonialism, the partition of India and Pakistan, and globalization.
