The Discourses of Modern and Contemporary Art in Pakistan: From the Establishment of the Country to the Contemporary Era

Moridi, Mohamadreza

doi:10.22034/ra.2025.2052221.1523

The Discourses of Modern and Contemporary Art in Pakistan: From the Establishment of the Country to the Contemporary Era

Document Type : Original Article

Author

mohamadreza Moridi

Associate Professor, Faculty of Theoretical Sciences & Higher Art Studies, Iran University of Art

10.22034/ra.2025.2052221.1523

Abstract

This article examines the important changes in modern and contemporary art in Pakistan and addresses the following questions: How did the artists of this country experience modernity in the ups and downs of political changes? How did they create works combining indigenous art with modern art, thus trying to shape indigenous modernity in Pakistani art?
Pakistani art, on the one hand, is linked to Orientalism, Hinduism, and Buddhist heritage; on the other hand, it is connected to Islamic heritage and, today, to modern and Western art. Hence, in the relatively short period since the founding of this country, there have been many ups and downs in artistic experiences.
In this article, we use the methodological approach of discourse analysis to explain the intertwining of political changes and artistic movements. Discourse analysis refers to the examination of the formation of the conditions of possibility for social phenomena. Discourse functions like a social space constructed by both agency and structure; it is within the discursive order that power relations are established, and under these conditions, meanings are formed. Therefore, the methodological question in discourse analysis is: how can the rules of the discursive order be formulated in a historical period? In this research, we will address the most important turning points of political and social developments in Pakistan. The data collection and organization technique is based on the trend method, allowing the developments in art and political changes in Pakistan to be narrated in an interconnected manner. For this purpose, we addressed the important historical points of this country’s art in the modern and contemporary eras, which are as follows: : 1) Before separation from India, when the culture of this region was influenced by the heritage of Eastern art, 2) The independence of Pakistan and the establishment of this state, which strengthened the wave of national and indigenous art, 3) The separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan and the decline of nationalism and the strengthening of Islamism in politics, which led to flourishing of Islamic arts such as calligraphy, 4) The period of relative political calm after the end of the Soviet-Afghan war and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which led to the development of the heritage discourse and a return to miniatures, 5) The tense era of radical Islamism after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which gave rise to a critical and protest-oriented art movement.
Accordingly, the research findings discuss five discourses influencing the evolution of modern and contemporary art in Pakistan: (1) Orientalist discourse and the legacy of miniature art in the Bengal school (by studying the works of Abanindranath Tagore, Abdur Rahman Chughtai and Allah Bakhsh), (2) Nationalist discourse and the formation Lahore School after Pakistan's independence (by studying the works of Shakir Ali and Khalid Iqbal ), (3) The Intertwining of Religious Art Discourse with Artistic Formalism and the Formation of Modern Calligraphy (by studying the works of Hanif Ramay, Anwar Jalal Shemza and Sadequain),(4) Heritage discourse and return to miniature (by studying the works of Haji Mohammed Sharif and Bashir Ahmed), (5) contemporaneity discourse and integration of miniature with critical and political themes (by studying the works of Imran Qureshi and Shahzia Sikander).
A study of the evolution of Pakistani art shows how Pakistani modernity was formed and how artists reconciled indigenous and traditional cultures. Pakistani modernity, like "other modernities," such as Iranian, Turkish, and Arabic modernity, raises the question of how non-Western modernities are possible. Are they incomplete versions of modernity? The answer is that modernity should not be seen as a "product" but as a "process". A process that gradually integrates with the intellectual contexts and political organization of a traditional society and leads to rethinking and change, as experienced in Pakistani art. Currently, contemporary Pakistani art is receiving more attention in the Middle East and Southwest Asian art markets, and more artists are developing contemporary art in Pakistan.
Modern art in Pakistan has been similar to modern art in Iran in many ways. Modern artists in both countries have attempted to connect modernism with the heritage of the past and to revive the traditions of Islamic art and national heritage in modern art. Contemporary works in both countries also have a critical orientation, depicting the politics of Islam and the cultural conflicts within Islamic societies in contemporary times.

Keywords

Pakistani Modern Art

Contemporary Pakistani Art

Indigenous Modernity

Miniature

Pakistan

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