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From Issue 83
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- Editor’s Letter Two decades old, twenty years young
- Reports Singapore
- Reports The Great Indian Art Bazaar
- Essays Building Local Networks
- Profiles Mohammed Kazem
- Features Roundtable
- Features Time Capsule
- Features Photo essay
- Features 20/20
- Features Influential & Emerging
- Reviews Michael Lin
- Reviews Nguyen Manh Hung
- Reviews Sharjah Biennial 11
- Where I Work Ai Weiwei
- Fine Print Art Funds: The Newest Art Market Participant
- Table of Contents
- Web Exclusives
- Archive
- Subscribe
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(Left)
Queen Elizabeth II and SALIMA HASHMI at the National College of Arts, Lahore, 1997.
(Upper right)
National College of Arts, Lahore, c. 1980s. First row (left to right): OMER BUKHSH, FARAH KARDAR, LAILA REHMAN, NOOR-US-SHAHAR, MASOOD HAMEED, LIAQAT ALI SHERAFI and TABASSAUM SHAHEEN. Second row (left to right): UZMA DURRANI, NAAZISH ATAULLAH, AFSHAR MALIK, QUDDUS MIRZA, SALIMA HASHMI, SUMMAYA DURRANI, IQBAL HASSAN, ABBASI ABIDI, BASHIR AHMED, SAEED AKHTAR, TALAT DABIR and ZAHID-UL-HAQ. Third row (left to right): NASIR BASHIR ALVI, MOHD TAYAB SAJID, MOHAMMAD ASIF and IQBAL HUSSAIN.
(Lower right)
First Vasl International Workshop at the village of Gadani, Pakistan, 2001. Back row (left to right): KHALIL CHISHTI, LALA RUKH AHMED, JERRY BUHARI, SUMAIRA TAZEEN, RUBY CHISHTI, NILOOFAR CHAMAN, ROOHI AHMED, SHAUNA MCMULLEN, WALTER EMILIO D’SOUZA, AMIN GULGEE, LAURA PADDOCK and NAIZA H. KHAN. Seated (left to right): TANG ZHIGANG, SAMINA MANSURI, K. PUSHPAKUMARA, NAYAN KULKARNI, MARYAM HUSSAIN, ANWAR SAEED, REHAB AL SADEK and ELLEN LIGTERINGEN.
Images courtesy Naiza H. Khan, Salima Hashmi, Wahab Jaffar, Vasl Artists’ Collective, Zohra Hussain, Chawkandi Art (Karachi), Naeem Pasha and Rohtas Gallery (Islamabad).
Three Decades in Pakistan
Throughout Pakistan’s turbulent political history, academic institutions have provided places of refuge for artists, nurturing and protecting creativity in times of ideological upheaval. It was therefore appropriate that in 1997, on the occasion of the nation’s 50-year anniversary of independence, British royalty elected to visit the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore. Previously known as the Mayo School of Arts, the NCA was one of four industrial craft schools set up by the British in the Indian Subcontinent during the colonial era.
The NCA group photograph on the opposite page reflects the growing number of Pakistani women in the arts by the 1980s.
Many played key roles in establishing art schools and university art departments in Lahore, Karachi, Hyderabad and Peshawar. A few decades later, it was women too who pioneered the first artist-run art collective Vasl, which brought international artists in contact with their Pakistani counterparts.
Also included are photographs of the late artist and owner of Indus Gallery Ali Imam, who persuaded the business community in Karachi to collect art, ensuring the financial future of the art scene. Artists such as Sadequain, AS Nagi and Shakir Ali mingled with industrialists bankers and corporate heads at Sunday afternoon salons over ice-cold beer.
Today, in an increasingly contentious political environment, Pakistani artists continue to share studios, manage alternative venues, intervene with impunity in public spaces and continually question and critique a changing society.
(Left)
A meeting held by the Sindh Artists’ Welfare Association, Karachi, c. 1980s.
(Upper right)
ZARINA HASHMI at her solo exhibition at Chawkandi Art, Karachi, 1998.
(Lower right)
Indus Gallery, Karachi, 1981. RABIA ZUBERI (far left), QUDSIA NISAR (second from left) PRINCESS WIJDAN ALI (center), NAHID RAZA (fifth from left), MEHR AFROZE (seventh from left), WAHAB JAFFAR (second from right), ALI IMAM (back, third from left).
(Upper left)
From left to right: RABIA ZUBERI, SALIMA HASHMI and RIFFAT ALVI, in the early 1990s.
(Upper right)
AYESHA JATOI, An Ode to Violence at 13 Satellites, Vasl residency in Lahore.
(Lower left)
Karachi Studio, 1996. From left to right: FARINA ALAM, ASMA MUNDRAWALA, BANI ABIDI and HUMA MULJI.
(Lower middle)
Indus Gallery, Karachi, 1981. From left to right: ALI IMAM (director of Indus Gallery), WAHAB JAFFAR (artist), SADEQUAIN (artist) and AS NAGI (artist).
(Lower right)
ASIM BUTT, Jharra’s Akharra at 13 Satellites, Vasl residency in Lahore, 2007.
