July 3, 2004

As art on the international scene fans out into new horizons through a medley of genres, blurring existing boundaries between disciplines and creating new mergers with lifestyle trends, science and technology, should we not take stock of our own situation too? A number of artists, critics and curators, mostly Karachi-based, were asked to appraise the scenario and comment on the status of Pakistani art in the international context. Their opinions were solicited by posing the following questions:

How do you rate Pakistani art in the global context?

What are our strengths that can or do give us an edge, or can be built upon?

What are our weaknesses that need to be rectified?

Our artists have talent, they are well versed in art grammar, modern thought and expression and have done work of tremendous significance, says Riffat Alvi, artist, director VM Gallery, Karachi. She continues: They just need better opportunities and patronage to further cement their creative abilities. We may not be on the victory stand yet but our potential is emerging and it is only a matter of time before others like Shazia Sikander will be able to bring name to the country. Attaining height in art is not a Concord journey, it is an arduous task which requires serious commitment.

Developing a modern idiom in the backdrop of a rich historical and cultural heritage will help us to evolve an identity in art. Our main strength lies in studying our old masters, their dedication and determination and the way in which they grappled their problems. In the light of these lessons we should chart a course which is also in consonance with present times.

There are several areas of weakness, which we have never explored in depth. Differences of opinion have to be set aside if we have to work collectively on a common platform for the furtherance of art. Interactions through dialogue should be initiated, even if there are several groups, like-minded people are bound to find common ground to work on.

Museums, art centres, arts councils, even the culture ministry and its related bodies, should show a better performance. There are hardly any international exchanges. If any, they meet the fate like the one in Oslo, where a golden opportunity for art projection was missed through clumsy handling and lack of planning.

The tunnel-vision outlook has to be done away with in art schools, and curricula should be revised to suit our present needs. Students should be made to confront crucial issues of creativity and identity. A ‘see, search and research’ formula has to be inducted to invigorate the spirit of the students and the artistic journey should begin from within rather than by emulating the West.

Zohra Hussain, director Chawkandi Art, Karachi, responds by saying: It is tempting to judge our art in the context of the subcontinent since we are quite familiar with artists from India and Bangladesh and the kind of work being produced there. It is a pity that we do not have cultural exchanges or dialogues with them because we share the same history, similar culture and traditions. One comes across such wonderful work from these countries.

There is no dearth of talent in our country and amazing work is being produced here also but everything is so haphazard where projection is concerned. Years of dictatorship and oppression have stifled intellectual inquiry, but the resurrection of miniature painting, the art movement led by Shazia Sikander, Imran Qureshi, Ayesha Khalid, Talha Rathore and others is a very good sign. Some of these artists have made it to the international art circuit which is no mean achievement.

I think our greatest strength lies in keeping our traditional values intact. In comparison with other countries, we are still very close to our roots and at the same time open to outside influences also. The miniature art movement of Lahore is a healthy response to these influences.

The amalgamation of the indigenous and the traditional with western visuals and aesthetics has to be very subtle. Ironically our greatest strength can become our greatest weakness if we allow ourselves to buckle under overwhelming outside influences. We have a tendency of looking at ourselves from western eyes, we cannot help doing this because it is the dominant discourse and we do not want to be marginalized or isolated. We have to counter this by strengthening our ideologies and improving our image in our own eyes. Globalization has exposed us to decadent western influences, which are breaking down the moral fibre of our youth and the value system of our society.

Naiza Khan, artist, art teacher, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, says: if you are talking about visibility on the global map, we do not exist. It is very difficult to measure or rate contemporary Pakistani art, if we are not out there amongst other countries in the region and beyond. There have been sporadic efforts to give a profile to art from Pakistan from within the country and on to the international scene. But we need more conspirators from the other side of the fence to take this cultural activity further. This means, not only the odd art collector able to sell the odd show going to London, but serious academic research into what is happening here, and why. Until that happens, we cannot accurately measure ourselves on a collective platform.

As in every field, we have individuals (rather than the state) who are committed, and willing to work hard, and this needs to be nurtured. We have a very diverse visual scene, with artists who have tremendous talent, and a sense of fearlessness and courage. The struggle they face is what sets them apart, gives the work an edge, where so much else has become banal and complacent.

We have a complete lack of infrastructure for the visual arts. If it exists, it is only working for a few. This needs to be rectified on a national level, through bodies like the arts councils. If visual arts are not supported by the state, we will remain in the backwaters for another 50 years.

There is also a growing myopia within the art world, which is stifling the creative directions inherent in artists. This self-censorship from within our art community shadows the rhetoric of our current socio-political situation. It is leading us to another level of cultural isolationism and suspicion. As artists, we do not need to spiral within the East-West bashing syndrome, our struggle is misplaced.

Niilofur Farrukh, critic, historian, activist, curator, and president of Fomma, Karachi, states: The problems need to be looked into critically and commercially. The fact that two major auction houses in the UK are dealing with Pakistani art can be looked upon as some kind of commercial success. Presently the buyers are either from the Diaspora or a handful of international collectors with an eclectic taste.

Pakistani art has yet to interest a wide range of investors. For this it needs a high visibility at mainstream galleries to boost the confidence of potential investors. The critical success of Pakistani Art is more complex. While there is support and interest for a few individual artists like Shazia Sikander, major art institutions and art critics seem reluctant to engage with the larger body of Pakistani art.

We experienced this at the major show, ‘Pakistan, Another Vision’, several years ago in London and more recently at ‘Laal: The Passion of Zahoorul Akhlaq’ in Canada. There are a few among the artists who are settled abroad and who feel that the emergence of South Asian art organizations has led to more opportunities but there is also the danger that their work may get ghettoized in the alternate ethnic space. Some are of the opinion that ‘dissident art’ based on human rights abuse, the veil etc. that reinforces the stereotype gets acclaimed while a more balanced view of Pakistani society is ignored.

Maybe this will change once more historical and contextual art material is available to international art critics. A dialogue between equals is also prevented by the persisting eurocentricism of the art establishment where art from the non-Western nations continues to be slotted either as exotic or derivative. When Pakistani art is shown at important Asian exhibitions, like the Dhaka Biennale, the response is overwhelming as the developing nations find a resonance of their own socio-political struggle and the dialogue that emerges is an invigorating one.

This is not to say that things have not improved in the last five decades but it has been too little and slow and mostly on an ad-hoc basis since most of the initiatives are either private or NGO-supported. The state needs to wake up to the fact that a more ‘art friendly’ cultural policy can also effectively support Pakistan’s diplomatic endeavours abroad.

In the absence of any defined art movement in the last five decades, Pakistani art has been shaped by individualistic philosophies, which has lent it a vibrant diversity. The three influential art mentors Shakir Ali, Ali Imam and Zahoorul Akhlaq encouraged an independent way of seeing which further contributed to this phenomenon.

Closely linked to our history, Pakistani art, in its reflection of issues like exploitative politics, urbanization and human rights concerns, pulsates with an emotional intensity and vigour only seen in the art of the developing nations. When the world’s late twentieth century art history is written, this will form an important chapter.

The exploration of miniature painting and its interesting marriage between traditional techniques and a contemporary sensibility has emerged in a distinctly Pakistani art form that is being followed with considerable interest. It has begun to attract an increasing number of artists, which points to its impact on the future of Pakistani art.

Since creativity, skill and intellect are central to all art the most engaging art demands that there be a balance among the three. The emphasis on conventional skills in the art academies also gives an average artist a fairly good foundation to build on, but the development of the mind has yet to be given serious consideration.

‘Intellectual fatigue’, even among mid-career artists often allows the seduction of the image to overwhelm the intellectual inquiry in the work. This may be directly connected to the low premium put on the development of analytical and inquiring mind in our society and our art schools suffer from the same malaise. Here art theory and art history have yet to be fully integrated with art making. For an environment that encourages an art discourse and recognizes the production of art as a significant national activity, Pakistan needs a dynamic art community of artists, art historians, art critics and curators.

How can an artist feel a part of the cultural continuum rather that the producer of a commodity? How can the creative talent not be compromised by the demands of the galley’s marketing imperatives? This can be achieved when a balance is struck between the gallery activity and a system that restores the prestige of the national and provincial shows and awards and builds national and regional art and craft museums all over the country. This will give the art student both a historical context and a cultural pride.

Art and culture are the human face of a society; they are deeply linked to how a nation perceives itself and asserts its identity, yet the primary and secondary education grossly neglects this field that is integral to our understanding of other nations and ourselves.

Rabia Zuberi, artist, sculptor and principal of Karachi School of Arts, says: The term “Pakistani art” is yet to be invested with sufficient meaning and perspective. But if it means the art being produced in Pakistan, I would say that no doubt a small division of the whole art activity taking place in our country is quite promising and comparable to contemporary global standards.

One’s strength comes only from one’s own roots. That is identification of socio-cultural identity and its multi-faceted relation to personal and collective environment. We have inherited a rich back ground intellectually and visually; and commitment to our social responsibilities and aptitude for hard work can prove to be an edge. Richness and endurance of art are ultimately rooted in one’s vision, conviction, approach and attitude towards life.

Misinterpretation of cultural norms, non-supportive government policies towards art and culture, social class-consciousness and ruthless commercialism in artists and galleries are the main factors that generate lobbyism and biased art criticism. These problems can be minimized by improving our state of education and by a better understanding of the relationship and functional role of art and design in our life.

Critic, photographer, poet, writer and curator from Islamabad, Aasim Akhtar says: Pakistani art stands, perhaps, not too tall. Having said that, if international shows, accolades and awards are any criterion of valued judgment, we’ve come a long way since 1947. The phenomenal success of Shazia Sikander has helped put Pakistan’s name on the cultural map of the world in recent years.

While the Punjab Artists’ Association is busy perpetuating the myth of a romantic Punjab in a mock-colonial style, the avant-garde seems to have either consciously denied to itself or simply abandoned the tradition of easel painting. Busy experimenting with new art mediums and toying with half-baked ideas without a clear understanding of either, the up and coming have already transgressed the barriers that separated art from craft, art from design and/or, for that matter, art from artifice. The last three years’ theses at the NCA, Lahore, are a pertinent case in point where students majoring in painting employed Xerox images and objets d’art instead of paint to justify their highfalutin (mis)conceptions of art.

The attempt to fuse populist imagery with imported concepts tasted like sour dill at the end of the day because there was no consonance between the artist and his life. Art must emanate from life, if not imitate it. On yet another note, stylized miniature painting came to be declared the order of the day through a holy decree issued by the pundits of art sitting in Lahore and Karachi.

In the presence of such disparate activity charged with profligacy and proliferation, what stands out as the only strength of art being produced in Pakistan is its diversity. The mere fact that art in Pakistan is far from static is probably its only saving grace. Whether it’s an irony of fate or a passing trend, a vast majority of artists, buyers and collectors, and gallery owners is getting drawn to the expanding art market which — as a phenomenon in itself — is a rather dynamic and interesting situation.

Although their scintillating techniques and new-fangled ideas should work in their favour, the artists’ basic devotion to self-promotion renders them suspect. For reasons which have partially to do with interrupted or violently destroyed traditions, and a conspicuous disregard for tradition and academicism, most are trying to run before they can walk. This has resulted in the production of ‘visual delights’ rather than substantial works of creative or intellectual import.

Most younger artists (read fresh graduates) break into the art market the moment they present their work for the annual thesis. Baiting the art market through private art galleries, which cannot distinguish between good and bad art, these artists produce artworks to deadlines — getting dates for exhibitions before producing the work. That says enough for the commodification of art.

In the last few years, there has been a tendency among artists in Pakistan to participate in international artists’ residency programmes and workshops as if that was some kind of a touchstone whereby their artistic merits could be ascertained. I wish they improve the quality of their work in future, rather than just globetrot.

Sameera Raja, director Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi, has this to say: I think by and large, Pakistani art is on a par with that being produced in most other countries. The exposure that artists get nowadays, vis-a-vis residencies, exchange programmes, seminars, conferences, art literature and exhibitions abroad make them aware of all that is happening around the world. This gives them the means to practice art within a broader context.

The foremost strength we have is that there are a number of good, quality art institutions where known artists are imparting their knowledge and expertise to students. Though there are no art museums, the increasing number of galleries with their numerous shows, provide a variety of art to students and connoisseurs alike. Pakistani art was on the back burner in the ‘80s (more to do with martial law than anything else). After that, the spectrum has changed and the sky is the limit.

With proper promotion and help, I feel Pakistani art can carve a niche for itself easily in the global context, case in point being the contemporary miniaturists. The success of Shazia Sikander led to miniature art being “found”. Subsequent quality exhibitions and residencies by Imran Qureshi, Aisha Khalid, Nusra Latif, Tazeen Qayyum, Saira Wasim, Wasim Ahmed, Usman Saeed, etc. have ensured that miniature is here to stay.

The vacuum or weakness I find is not in the art but rather the projection of art abroad. Our artists have the skills and the technique, along with thinking minds, to explore and depict art at any forum around the globe. We as a nation have unfortunately not been able to promote quality Pakistani art and artists internationally. That is however sadly not just restricted to the spheres of art, rather our entire marketing strategy about us as Pakistanis.

Public and private sector participation is what is required. The only way to show the “cultural” aspect of Pakistan is not by doing fashion shows time and again. Exhibitions at good, reputable galleries (and not at the ambassadors’ residences where they become coffee parties), with press coverage and art critiques would go a long way in promoting art. The urge to indulge in nepotism and only exhibiting works of a certain group of people would also need to be restrained. Work should be chosen on merit and from different categories of art, rather than an atypical type of work.Interviews compiled by Salwat Ali