This book will not only serve as an introduction to this extraordinary artist but will also locate Akhlaq within a wider art practice which must debate many of the issues facing a young contemporary audience now living under the 'siege of Islam' and the demonisation of Muslims everywhere. Zahoor ul Akhlaq wasclearly enigmatic, warm and intimate but his labyrinthine search for a visualphilosophy-an iconography of being-remained relatively misunderstood. He diedtragically producingsome of his best works. At the time of his death at almost 60, Akhlaq was notonly one of the leading painters and experimental artists in Pakistani art circles, he pioneered the role of art as a seriously engaged critical practice. Taking off from the tragic murder in January 1999 of the Pakistani artist Zahoor ul Akhlaq, the book charts the story of this elusive artist. The more the author Roger Connah researched, the more versions of a truth emerged. Known as the 'painter's painter' within Pakistan, Akhlaq appears to have lived a life so public that it became secret, a critical fiction. A permanently picaresque figure, Akhlaq recalls those Sufi scholars from the ninth and tenth century in Asia. Beginningwith an interest in calligraphy, Akhlaq searched for a vibrant cultural practice in contemporary Pakistan. As an artist-wayfarer in and out of cities like Karachi, Delhi, Lahore, Toronto, London, Montreal, Bangkok, Kabul, Teheran, Tokyo, Venice, this book begins to recount a life in flux, a life on themove, a life exploring the traditions of Islam and the dancing order of a Muslim mind. The necessity and urgency to negotiate the invasions and seductions of Modernity produce unusual reversals in his art and contemporary narratives about the society and culture. INDICE: Introduction Part 1: Fragments from a Critical Life Part 2: Critical Fictions Part 3: Strange History A Gift Misunderstood - coda
- ISBN: 978-0-19-547472-5
- Editorial: Oxford University
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 350
- Fecha Publicación: 06/10/2011
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés