Volume 2, Issue 1 (April 2007)

Essays

Indonesian Contemporary Art & the Development of Art Infrastructure:
Influences, Appropriations, and Tensions
by Rifky Effendy
The most recent development in Indonesian contemporary art practice has been dominated by artists trained at institutions in Bandung and Yogyakarta. These institutions were created in the shadow of nationalism, which created ideological platforms.

Punjab Panaroma: A Stylistic Diversity in Painting and Graphics
by Miriam Habib (1927-2007)
This article was originally written in 1982 and is included as a part of the NuktaArt retrospective series on art writings since 1947. The writer’s close proximity to the early developments both as a participant and observer are documented in her writings, providing an invaluable resource.

Need for Objectivity in the Study of Art
by Mulk Raj Anand (1905-2004)
This article was originally written in 1964. It is from the archives of Artasia, and is included as a part of the NuktaArt retrospective series on art writings since 1947. Its author Mulk Raj Anand belonged to a generation of writers committed to the ideals of the Gandhian struggle for class equality.

Beyond Hindu and Muslim: Rethinking Iconographic Models and Symbolic Expressions in Sindh, a Case of the Tradition of Rama Pir
by Sohail Amir Ali Bawani
Images, signs and symbols have always been significant intermediaries between the world and its representation before individuals.

Two Days in Paris – The Idea, the Universal and the Global
by Ian McLean
Araeen, who never had much time for postmodernism, is today’s most prescient advocate of modernism: he identifies the Ideas’ journey with the path of modernity. The globalism of his project as an effect of the Idea, through modernity, inaugurating a world history. The two day seminar in Paris was devoted entirely to the work of Rasheed Araeen and the journal he founded in 1987 (and still edits), the Third Text.

Art Global

My Karachi Diary
by Sevim Cizer
A day-to-day diary of the participation of eminent Turkish ceramist and educator Sevim Cizer in the third ASNA Clay Triennial, 2006, in Karachi, Pakistan.

The Excursion to the ‘Blue Tile’ workshop in Nusserpur, Sindh - November 15 ‘06
by Catharina Kajander
To have the possibility to visit this 400 year old family enterprise, which took me back into a tradition which has stayed intact for many generations, was a fascinating excursion.

Artis Blong Tude (Artist of Today)
Post-Independence Contemporary Papua New Guinea
by Diane Buck
Many remarkable early 19th century collections from Papua New Guinea have long been extolled by visitors to museums in some of the world’s well-known cities. The country of Papua New Guinea itself remained still largely unvisited except by anthropologists, missionaries or wartime invaders.

Aesthetic Dichotomies and Conceptual Terrains in Sylvat Aziz’s “Mother of all Postcards”
by Deepali Dewan-Cobb
“Mother of all Postcards” is a series of twelve photo-based paintings by Pakistani-Canadian artist Sylvat Aziz, recently acquired by the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. The works contain imagery of Islamic architecture and material culture.

Art Conservation

Architectural Conservation - Principles and Practice
by Mukhtar Husain
Man-made causes of decay need careful assessment, as they are in general the by–product of the industrial productivity that brings us wealth and enables us to press the claims of conservation. Neglect and ignorance are possibly the major causes of destruction by man, coupled with vandalism and fires.

Art Collector

John Wall
by Sara Mahmood
John Wall was aware of Hussain’s reputation through reading the mid-nineties Time magazine article that brought the painter worldwide attention, unique for a Pakistani artist. But he was unprepared for the impact the live works would have on him.

Book Review

100+1 Pakistani Architects and their own houses
Authored by Mukhtar Husain
Reviewed by Maria A
The dynamics of architecture in Pakistan are still evolving. The struggle between modernity, vernacular, Islamic and global is ongoing and competing. What better way to understand the architects’ creation and leaning towards a significant movement and time-period than his own abode.

Music

Losing the Soul - Sixty Years of Classical Music in Pakistan
by Rumana Husain
We listen to ‘instant’, ‘fast’ (akin to fast food), electrical pop/rock music emanating from a hi-fi, on the way to work, instead of listening to a door–to-door minstrel or an ustad or khan sahib, who could command undivided attention and plenty of time, and who used to be at once a vocalist, a musician, a philosopher, a guide, an educator…

Nukta-e-Nazar

In Search for Identity of Baltic Culture
by Arunas Gelunas and Rein Raud
A conversation between a Lithuanian and an Estonian art critic on issues faced in art institutions and art practice of the post Soviet era; this is an exchange article between NuktaArt and Daile, a bi-lingual, Lithuanian art journal with a wide European circulation, to further art dialogue between developing countries.

Art @ Nukta

18@8: Kuala Lumpur – Karachi
Group exhibition of Malaysian Artists at Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi,Pakistan.
Review by Amra Ali

Adeela Suleman: Confinement. One person show at Artists Commune, Karachi, Pakistan
Review by Amra Ali

Tale Spinning. Group Exhibition at Croweaters Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
Review by Saira Dar

Market Values Flow: Visible and Invisible Lives
One person Exhibition of works by Amin Rehman at South Asian Gallery of Art, Ontario, Canada.
Review by Kym Pruesse

Old Clothes in New Trappings : Naee Azadi (New Freedom). Show at Pakistan Institute of International Affairs on the occasion of the Karafilm Festival, Karachi.
Review by Rumana Husain

Coming Together: Workshop at the Janakpur Women Development Centre, Nepal
Review by Mustafa Zaman

Sites of Anxiety: Samina Mansuri
One person show at Chawkandi Art, Karachi.
Review by Niilofur Farrukh

Lahore- A Crucible of Influences: Seminar at the Fine Arts Research Centre, Lahore College for Women University
Report by Samina Shah

Rashid Arshed: In Essence. A one person show at the IVSAA Gallery, Karachi
Review by Amra Ali

Photo Essay

The Third Asna Clay Triennial 2006