While standing face to face with Faiza Butt’s large scale romanticized painting at Grosvenor Gallery, London, the artist’s trajectory echoes in my mind. The works are an ode to nature, where the title Super Natural doesn’t refer to otherworldly beings;…
The Bangladesh Window Commemorating the Patriarch Author: Abul Mansur Originally published in NuktaArt, inaugural issue, May 2005 Cover Design: Sabiha Mohammad Imani Source of inspiration: Painting by Zubeida Agha, Karachi by Night, 1956 The 90th birth anniversary of Zainul Abedin,…
Manuscript making and illumination in the Indian Mughal courts has been a well-recognized high-art form in South Asia between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Emperors, such as Akbar (b.1542-1605) and Shah Jahan (b.1592-1666), frequently posed on terraces of their…
A. R. Nagori once proclaimed that he had “earned the distinction of being the first painter in the Subcontinent to be censored.”13 He certainly wasn’t the last. How a state attempts to censor and censure artists ultimately reveals not only…
The area of Anarkali extends south from the Lohari Gate of the old Walled City to across the British-era Mall—a wide tree-lined boulevard. Therefore, it encompasses a large swathe of the city and consists of colonial structures, a residential area24 and…
Fabric, flowers and identity are the threads that plait together the work of artists Adeela Suleman, Bushra Waqas Khan, David Alesworth, Liaqat Rasul and Ruby Chishti in the exhibition Patterns of the Past, Weaving Heritage in ‘Pakistani’ Art. Held at…
MERCOSUL BIENNIAL: Crossing Territories Author: Dr. Maria Amelia Bulhões Originally published in NuktaArt, inaugural issue, May 2005 Cover Design: Sabiha Mohammad Imani Source of inspiration: Painting by Zubeida Agha, Karachi by Night, 1956 Mega events are a phenomenon of modernity…
Ask the inhabitants of Karachi for their observations on how their city functions, and one of the more common responses will be that they find Karachi to be in perpetual flux. The city portrays itself as a living, breathing organism.…
As a South Asian, one is more than likely to be familiar with chicken pattices or ‘patties’, and have seen them being served at least at one social gathering. These crispy, golden-brown pastries filled with soft, warm meat filling have…
It was a strange co-incidence, that the day Bashir Mirza died I had called him up but got no response. He had been unwell for a few weeks and I was hoping he was better and I would get to…