Pakistani Visual Art

The art of Arabic calligraphy is considered to be the soul of Islamic art since the advent of Islam. The practice of traditional calligraphy has always been given immense importance in the Islamic world. This practice left strong mark on the aesthetic sensibility of the artists as well that paved new avenues in its development which resulted in modern calligraphy. The Pakistani art scene is magnificent in terms of art practice. Pakistani artists have played vital role for the expansion of modern calligraphy by using their own expressive visual language. The pioneers of modern calligraphy in Pakistan used this genre for visual communication. They proved themselves to be the trend setters of a new wave that left enormous impact on the practice of contemporary artists in Pakistan. Pioneers of modern calligraphy are observed promising in bridging gaps between the contemporary and the traditional practice of calligraphy in Pakistan.

Miniature art is an important component of the Pakistani art canon. Within a span of 66 years, since Pakistan’s independence, it has evolved from a traditional craft to a specialized degree course taught at the National College of Arts (NCA) in Lahore and into one of the most popular Pakistani contemporary genres to be exhibited outside the country. From a traditional technique of copying old masters, symbolic of the nation’s glorious Muslim heritage and identity, contemporary miniature has now become a genre that investigates technique, form and content often through subversion and the use of new media. The international positioning of Pakistani contemporary miniature art is unique - it is almost always a part of Pakistani contemporary art exhibitions but there have also been a number of exhibitions that solely exhibit contemporary miniature which signals its special place in the Pakistani contemporary canon. This study evaluates four major international exhibitions and projects namely; Manoeuvering Miniatures 2001, Contemporary Miniature Paintings from Pakistan 2004, Karkhana: A Contemporary Collaboration 2005 and Beyond the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan 2006/2010 to investigate the dominant positioning of contemporary miniature art within the realm of Pakistani art internationally.  By critically evaluating the nature of these exhibitions, their curatorial strategy and their themes this