Dispatches from Pakistan

An Art of Extremes

238 AnArtof Extremes hammad nasar nationhood and identity; political tussles between the army, clergy, and politicians; gender roles “fixed” by society and state; a lack of infrastructure for art; the effects of globalization in general, and an India-fueled emerging art market in particular—these are some of the diverse issues that have shaped the course of recent art production and distribution in Pakistan. The “extremes” of the title to this essay refers to the two most vibrant strands of art-making in the country: innovating through tradition, as exemplified by the veritable army of young talent being produced by the miniature department of the National College of Arts, and the art of the everyday, coming from highly divergent sources. This essay discusses some of the issues that contextualize the visual culture of Pakistan, and then focuses on the two highlighted themes as a framework for exploring recent contemporary art practice. The nation of Pakistan is a young, changing, and unstable construct . Formed in 1947 through the partition of India and its postwar decolonization by the British, Pakistan was initially created in two halves (East and West). But in 1971, with India’s help, East Pakistan won independence and emerged as Bangladesh. This split challenged Pakistan’s foundational premise of being a home for the subcontinent’s Muslims; linguistic, ethnic, and geographic differences proved more an art of extremes 239 potent than the shared Islamic faith. Pakistan has since lurched from crisis to crisis—economic, political, constitutional, humanitarian, and existential. An inability to develop robust democratic institutions has resulted in the country being governed by an alternating group of venal politicians and military dictators, each holding power for roughly half of Pakistan’s existence. This toxic politics has seeded a general sense of disenfranchisement and a poverty of expectations among Pakistan’s citizenry and has shaped the outlook and artistic output of many artists, young and old. While a young nation, Pakistan shares a long past with India and, to a lesser extent, Central Asia and the Middle East. These shared histories tap Pakistan into wider narratives of significant civilizations with a considerable “back catalogue” of cultural production. However, cultural production in Pakistan has tended to favor certain past narratives over others: for example, the Mughal miniature over Gandharan Buddhist sculpture. This privileging has often taken the form of state backing, most notably with calligraphy during the regime of military ruler General Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s. Zia’s Islamist agenda and the regressive policies it engendered also gave impetus to the feminist movement, stimulating the focus and zeal of artists such as Salima Hashmi (b. 1942) in mobilizing and promoting the visual arts as a means of resistance.1 Like other postcolonial states with uneven access to education and a paucity of opportunities for its growing population, Pakistan has witnessed waves of emigration. The idea of Pakistani art is, therefore, not restrained within national boundaries. RasheedAraeen (b. 1935),Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928–85), Samina Mansuri (b. 1956), Shahzia Sikander (b. 1969), Iftikhar Dadi (b. 1961), Nusra Latif Qureshi (b. 1973), Faiza Butt (b. 1973), Ruby Chishti (b. 1963), and Khalil Chishtee (b. 1964) are all influential artists from Pakistan who have established careers outside their country of birth. Less obvious but equally important is the role played by artists who moved to Pakistan and worked and taught there for extended periods, including Beate Terfloth (b. 1958), Sophie Ernst (b. 1972), David Alesworth (b. 1957), and Elizabeth Dadi, whose artistic influence has been absorbed by a generation of artists from Pakistan. At independence from British rule in 1947, Pakistan inherited one major art education institution—the Mayo School of Art in Lahore, 240 Hammad Nasar later renamed the National College of Arts (NCA). While many other art schools have since been established, the NCAhas remained a dominant force in Pakistan’s artistic development, its diverse student body finding inspiration from a supply of encouraging artist-teachers over the past four decades, from Shakir Ali (1914–75), Zahoor ul Akhlaq (1941–99), Salima Hashmi, and Naazish Ataullah (b. 1950) to a younger generation including Quddus Mirza (b. 1961), Rashid Rana (b. 1968), and Imran Qureshi (b. 1972). In Karachi, the establishment of the IndusValley School of Art and Architecture in 1989 generated a burst of energy around what has been called Karachi Pop. Inspired by urban aesthetics, a small group of artist-teachers...