From a slow evolution in the 1980s-90s to a rapid incline in the last decade, contemporary Asian art has grown exponentially due to a mushrooming of regional biennials and triennials. This has drawn attention to Asian cities as alternative art centres, thereby leading to the building of new contemporary art museums along with initial international recognition and success of Asian artists of Chinese, Japanese, and Thai origin.

This sudden ascent and newly gained international popularity raises many questions for art historians, students and art critics. How, for instance, does one define Asian contemporary art? How does it differ from artwork produced in art centres of New York and London, especially when several major Asian modern artists live and work in these cities? Are there differences in the work of Asian artists living in the West as compared to the works of those living in Asia? Perhaps more importantly, what underpins this new field of study?

The art scholarship defining this phenomenon, formerly limited to catalogue write-ups, journal papers and magazine articles, is now widening into exhaustive and panoramic book compilations. A major portion of the new volumes track the progressive quantum leap of Chinese arts as one of the leading players in the international art market but a few recent publications have a broader all-encompassing focus on the Asian region in totality. The Pakistani art milieu, poised between the Far East and the Middle East, can benefit from the diversity of developments on both fronts.

Some recent publications defining this evolution are listed below with brief introductions.

This book is the first anthology of critical writings to map the shift in both the nature and the reception of Asian art over the past 20 years. Offering texts by mostly Asian pre-eminent figures in the field and including more than 50 illustrations in colour as well as black and white, it covers developments in East Asia (including China, Korea, and Japan), South Asia (including India and Pakistan), and Southeast Asia (including Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand).

Together, the 23 texts posit a historical and pan-Asian response to the question, "What is Asian contemporary art?" Considering topics such as Asian modernism (‘productive mistranslation’ of the European original), Asian cubism, and the curating, collection, and criticism of Asian contemporary art, this book promises to be a foundational reference for many years to come.

Among those endorsing the book, Stefan Landsberger (Olfert Dapper Professor of contemporary Chinese culture, University of Amsterdam, and associate professor in contemporary Chinese history, Leiden University) remarks that its essays, “illustrate how thoroughly the orientation and direction of the international art world has shifted over time."

Katie Hill (senior lecturer in contemporary Chinese art, University of Westminster) also observes, “This collection of essays will be an immensely important resource for anyone wishing to understand the history, scope, and complexity of this emergent and vital field of artistic practice. The volume will be extremely useful to specialists and also to curators, collectors, and researchers who are looking to gain a detailed and informative grasp of historical developments and concepts of modernity, cultural translation, globalisation, and localised cultural concepts in Asia.”

Other than this anthology, an earlier volume authored by the same duo is also widely acknowledged publication relating to the same subject.

This authoritative, wide-ranging volume surveys the contemporary art of Asia, examining key issues and themes: art’s relationship with history and tradition, its engagement with politics, society and the state, its exploration of consumerism and popular culture, and its interplay with the urban environment.

Artists range from the established — Nam June Paik, On Kawara, Yoko Ono, Cai Guo-Qiang, Takashi Murakami — to the emerging — Indonesian cartoonist Wedhar Riyadi, Mongolian site-specific artist Chaolun Baatar, Pakistani graffitist Naiza Khan, Vietnamese-American photo artist Dinh Q. Lê, and many more.

Together, these artists represent the range of Asian countries, from Indonesia to Japan, Uzbekistan to South Korea, and Iran to China. Capturing the full scope of the artists’ practice, from calligraphy, painting, sculpture, and photography to performance, installation, video, and Internet art, complete with comprehensive biographies, Asian Art Now  is both a superb critical overview as well as a consummate visual reference.

Ferris Olin and Judith K. Brodsky are a renowned founding and directing team at the Institute for Women and Art-Rutgers. Five years ago, Ferris Olin went to the prestigious International Istanbul Biennial, curious to see what this major contemporary art event had to offer. She left determined to bring some of the magic she had witnessed in Turkey back to her academic home, Rutgers University in New Brunswick, especially the works of women artists. The result: The Fertile Crescent: Gender, Art and Society was a mammoth collection of exhibits, symposia, film screenings, lectures and performances by and about contemporary women with roots in the Middle East.

“One of the things we see is the dissolution of borders and the ways by which people are crossing borders but retaining connections to their homeland,” Olin says. “It’s a very fluid situation and the lack of fixity is a theme that runs through a number of works that many of the women address in different ways.” The volume, also titled, The Fertile Crescent was published in conjunction with a fall 2012 multi venue exhibition at Rutgers and Princeton Universities and the Arts Council of Princeton/Paul Robeson Centre for the Arts.

The Fertile Crescent examines the work of 24 women artists of the Middle East heritage: Negar Ahkami (Iranian), Shiva Ahmadi (Iranian), Jananne Al-Ani (Iraqi), Fatima and Monira Al Qadiri (Kuwaiti), Ghada Amer (Egyptian), Zeina Barakeh (Lebanese), Ofri Cnaani (Israeli), Nezaket Ekici (Turkish), Diana El Jeiroudi (Syrian), Parastou Forouhar (Iranian), Ayana Friedman (Israeli), Shadi Ghadirian (Iranian), Mona Hatoum (Palestinian), Hayv Kahraman (Iraqi), Efrat Kedem (Israeli), Sigalit Landau (Israeli), Ariane Littman (Israeli), Shirin Neshat (Iranian), Ebru Özseçen (Turkish), Laila Shawa (Palestinian), Shahzia Sikander (Pakistani), Fatimah Tuggar (Nigerian) and Nil Yalter (Turkish). These artists all explore matters of gender, homeland, geopolitics, theology and the environment. The authors in this volume address transnationalism and the interaction between Muslim and Jewish cultures along with Christian and Euro-American cultures, resulting in US and European relationships that are sometimes congenial and at other times, problematic. The book also addresses the Middle East’s cultural Diaspora in black Africa and South Asia.

Any library strong in Middle East history, culture or art will benefit from the art world’s production titled, Contemporary Art in the Middle East. Being a dynamic examination of a range of artists and styles from the region, it provides a new perspective on popular art in all styles.

Contemporary Art in the Middle East is a vital account of the amazing work coming out of a region where reports of political conflict often eclipse those of cultural innovation. With essays by esteemed writers, academics and practitioners, the book profiles the work of the most cutting edge artists coming out of the Middle East today, including that by Khosrow Hassan Zadeh, Shrin Neshat, Mona Hatoum, Farhad Moshiri, Shadi Ghadirian, Ghazel, Mitra Tarisian, Reza Aramesh and Yehudit Sasportas. The first survey of its kind, it shatters old stereotypes to provide a forum for art that is insightful, humourous, interesting and inspiring.