Women at the forefront of contemporary art in Pakistan

Salima Hashmi has seen Pakistan contemporary art grow from up close, both as an acclaimed senior practitioner and a teacher. She has been professor at National College of Art (NCA) for over three decades, four years as its principal, and is now dean at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore. Hashmi, the daughter of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, has mentored several of the country’s most acclaimed artists -- Shahzia Sikander, Faiza Butt, Naiza Khan, Huma Mulji, etc. Two large shows curated by her -‘Desperately Seeking Paradise’ at Art Dubai in 2008 and ‘Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan’ at the Asia Society, New York in 2009 -- were important expositions of the range and diversity of art-making from Pakistan. Hashmi was in Delhi, the city where she was born in 1942, recently to deliver a lecture at the Pakistan High Commission on the subject. Gargi Gupta spoke to her: 

What explains the sudden efflorescence of Pakistani contemporary art? 
The general impression is that this efflorescence is sudden. Actually it has been a slow and steady maturing of ideas and talent over several decades. The acclaim has also been slowly growing, but it is now having effect because of media interest and high profile auction sales.

What are the characteristics of this contemporary art? 
Art-making today deals with myriads of issues in multiple ways. Mediums have multiplied, every kind of exploration is in process. A general comment that can be made is that the work is fearless, lively and exciting. One feature is a deep sense of irony and dark humour which is directed at ourselves. It gives me great courage. If one can laugh at oneself then one has a future!

How did this art, often critical of the State, survive in the midst of a repressive regime? 
The tradition in Pakistani literature, specially poetry, is to confront the oppression of the State. The visual artist does not command an audience as large as the poet or writer, but nevertheless has responded to times of great suppression and turbulence that we have gone through. Sadequain had his paintings burnt and Colin David's works were vandalized by a mob of Jamaat students. Artists were spared jail, but not harassment perhaps because they had small audiences and were not a threat. Faiz and others were all incarcerated as were writers, journalists, and so many others. 

What role have official institutions played in the growth of this art?
Official institutions such as Art Councils etc have not played a critical role except for brief periods, eg when Faiz headed the Art Council in Lahore from 1959 to 1962, and later the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in the 1970s. However, the government-funded teaching institutions have been important, specifically the NCA. NCA nurtured generations of artists and teachers, was a haven during Gen Zia's time, and managed to preserve its academic freedom with grit and confidence.

Many of the more radical artists are women. Your comment...
Pakistani presents an interesting and unusual scenario as far as women's role in art education is concerned. Unlike other parts of the world, here women have pioneered and headed almost ALL of the university art departments and art schools, specially in turbulent times. NCA had FIVE successive female principals. Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi had two. Karachi University has a woman as head of visual art and so does BNU. Unusual to say the least and for a Muslim country, unheard of! Women have been in the forefront as practitioners, specially in the '80s and '90s, when their work was concerned with many of the issues confronting them in Zia ul Haq's regime. In 1982, 16 women artists got together and drafted a Women Artists Manifesto, which was not made public, but it altered the direction of their art making.

How much of this art looks outward at the West, and how much does it look inward? 
The young artist today has the advantage of being able to look at work as it happens anywhere in the world. Yet, for many of them, the primary motivation stems from their own experience, which is intense and often difficult. Art students come from all parts of the country, from the elite as well as from places which are hard to find on the map and where there are no facilities of any kind. It is a miracle that talent finds its way to an art school or to a teacher who becomes a mentor and the next generation is nurtured. Once the basics are in place, the aesthetics questioned and imbibed, then the world is there for the curious to probe, to investigate and hopefully to conquer!

Is there a gallery system that encourages and sustains this new art?
The 'market' is very small in Pakistan, so many artists are teachers which is just as well. It keeps your feet firmly on the ground and makes you part of the conversation, which is very local. Galleries are mushrooming and they are of many kinds, catering to every kind of clientele. Most artists find their niche in other places too. Publishing, advertising, PR firms, event management, web design... 
Galleries are largely conservative in their approach, looking to sell 'safe' products' but this is changing. A few galleries in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad are encouraging more radical artists. However, they too have to make a living, so compromises are inevitable! 

This is where international residencies, museums, curators come to the rescue.

Indian galleries have deep links with artists from Pakistan. How do the difficult relations between the two countries impact this?
Indian galleries have been very supportive in sustaining some of our important contemporary artists. Neither government has played any kind of role in fostering these relationships. Sometimes one thinks this has happened in spite of the two governments who are always too busy wrangling over something or the other! There is no protocol for cultural exchange or art exchange. Yet artists and their work do manage to cross borders and find so much to talk about and share. I am sometimes very jealous that music, literature, and films make the journeys so easily, while the physicality of art is a huge hinderance to this back and forth exchange.