332 Aesthetic Modernism in the

Post-Colony: The Making of

a National College of Art in
Pakistan (1950–1960s)
Nadeem Omar Tarar

Abstract

With the formation of Pakistan as a modern

Islamic republic in 1947, the institutions of art and
design education were transformed under the
sway of modernization theories of development.
A conceptual and physical infrastructure was put
in place to modify existing institutions and to
create new ones for encouraging modern art and
artists in the country. The 1950s saw major devel-
opments taking place in the former Mayo School
of Art which was upgraded to the National
College of Arts to train designers, artists and
architects to meet the requirements of a new
nation. The distinction between arts and crafts
formed the discourse through which the changes
in art education were articulated. The process of
change unleashed in art education is emblematic
of the changes taking place in the other sectors
of economy and culture. The Bauhaus influence
which formed the initial impulse to bring artists
and craftsmen in the service of national industry
gave way to the competing fine art movements in
painting resulting in abandoning the synthesis of
arts and crafts envisaged in the earlier approaches
to art education.

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With the emergence of India and Pakistan as new The advocates of modernisation theories focused 333
post-colonial states, the decades of the 1950s upon the socio-economic conditions of Western Nadeem Omar Tarar
and 1960s acquired unique importance in the and non-Western societies with particular refer-
history of South Asia. It was a period of the ence to the notion of ‘development’, and drew
dismantling of colonial structures and institutions parallels between them to highlight the contrast-
and a gestation for a whole new set of impulses ing features of their prototypes (Hobart 1993). A
that owe their life to the birth of modern nations tangled web of discourses, in diverse genres
on the cultural and political map of South Asia including economics, political sciences and soci-
(Jalal 2001). The nascent Pakistani state in its ology, similar to discourses of Orientalism but
early decades struggled to forge a hegemonic with North America as the primary referent repre-
cultural identity over a multicultural and multi- sented the former colonies in continuing need of
ethnic map to replicate an official version of the education from the Western world (Escobar
‘imagined community’ of a modern Islamic nation 1995). Western societies, viewed as constituting
[1]. The emancipatory discourses of the post- the pinnacle of progress, had abandoned more
colonial state were immersed in the paradigm of traditional forms of community and tradition, and
modernisation and development, which this ‘passing of traditional society’ became the
prescribed the policies for the growth and devel- guiding canon for a wide range of studies analys-
opment of the national economy through trade, ing the worldwide transition to modern societies
industry and technical education (Noman 1988). (Lerner 1958). From Parsons-inspired typologies
In the modernisation discourses of the Paki- of economic modernization to Lerner’s studies of
stani state, ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ became social-psychological contrasts, and Rostow’s
emblems of transitional stages of national cultural ‘stage’ model, the Western-dominated scholar-
development. The project of modernity spurred ship on development, generated various models
the national imagination as colonialism was for isolating essential features of tradition and
recast as an unfinished project of modernity, leav- modern societies (Webster 1984). In their deter-
ing room for a renewed agenda for the progress ministic worldviews, various trajectories of transi-
and development of a modern nation. The central tion from tradition to modern societies were
tenets of economic policy and planning in Paki- projected on the world map, dividing the socio-
stan in the 1950s and 1960s came to be defined geography of the world into the ‘traditional’ and
in terms of the theories of modernisation and ‘modern’ (Shiner 1975).
development, which were at the forefront of
social sciences research in the post-world-war Framings of traditions: the Mayo School of
period (Eisenstadt 1974). Borrowing from the Arts and modern art education in Pakistan
classical sociology of Durkheim and Weber, post- The Mayo School of Arts (MSA) Lahore, which
world-war development discourses viewed non- was established as a school of industrial art and
Western societies as ‘traditional’ ones, experienc- design in 1875, was restructured and upgraded
ing the same transitory period of evolutionary as the National College of Arts (NCA) in 1958 to
development, from ‘pre-modern’ to ‘modern’, provide art and design education to the modern
which Western societies had long ago passed artists of a newly independent nation [2]. By the
through. Operative from the literal beginning of early 1960s, the craft section of the MSA was
the European Renaissance, the opposition restructured and curtailed in fundamental ways in
between ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ society formed the process of the formation and development of
an important link in the genealogy of nineteenth- the NCA as a premier art institution which was to
and twentieth-century modern thought and be integrated with the emerging urban-industrial
continues to provide substance to the theories of economy of Pakistan. Like its predecessor, the
modernisation circulating since the 1950s (Hall & NCA was located at the apex of the provincial
Gieben 1992). (and later federal) system of art instruction, for
which the sphere of influence went far beyond

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334 the confines of the college. Being the only art importantly, the transformation of the school in
Nadeem Omar Tarar institution in the country for several decades, the the early decades of the twentieth century, under
NCA became the arbitrator of a public aesthetic the pedagogic influence of the Bauhaus and its
sphere, anchored in the canon of modern West- sustained engagement to negotiate craftsman-
ern art (Farrukh 1997). ship with modern industry is conveniently
In the nationalist discourses on art education ignored. Routinely represented as the ‘childhood’
in South Asia, the shift from ‘craft’ education to of institution, under the imperial tutelage of the
‘fine art’ instruction was understood to be symp- venerated first Principal John Lockwood Kipling,
tomatic of a cultural transition from traditional to the static image of the MSA as a craft school,
modern society [3]. However, the cultural proc- trying in vain to revive the decaying folk indus-
esses for the construction of national identity tries, was invented and retained [7]. Even Shakir
were rooted in the fundamental postulates of Ali, the renowned modern painter and the first
colonial modernity that considered ‘arts’ and Pakistani principal of the NCA recalled the objec-
‘crafts’ as binary opposites made to appear as tives of the MSA as imparting ‘instruction in vari-
separate and almost unrelated constituencies. ous forms of crafts-work in order to help the
The exclusive claims of painting, sculpture and indigenous handicrafts and art industries of the
architecture to the status of ‘fine art’ and the Province by maintaining ancient traditions’
marginalisation of undifferentiated ‘crafts’ to a (emphasis added) [8]. Without a qualified critical
salon de refuse is part of the discourse that consti- appreciation of colonial education, Shakir Ali
tuted fine art as a sign of the modernity of the subscribed to the static image of the MSA surviv-
nation, and craft as the emblem of timeless folk ing in isolation from the national and international
traditions [4]. Tradition and modernity became art world. It was reinforced through anecdotal
the axes around which debates on the construc- publications as traces of its archive and the insti-
tion of cultural identities of modern nations in tutional existence as the school of industrial art
South Asia would continue to generate [5]. For and design for more than half a century in colonial
the rising generations of Pakistani artists in the Punjab were erased from public memory [9].
1950s, the formation of NCA heralds the begin- Prior to the discovery of the administrative
ning of modern art in Pakistan, the spirit and prac- records of the MSA, which led to the formation of
tice of which was allegedly discouraged in colo- National College of Arts Archive (NCAA) in 2000,
nial art schools, intended to produce low-order the received wisdom of modern artists and art
craftsmen for the service of the colonial economy historians was never challenged. It never
(Hashmi forthcoming). surprised art historians that the administrative
To be sure, for modern artists and the national- records of the MSA had such a varied existence:
ist elite, the MSA was always configured as a from carefully kept active records to scraps of old
craft school, which was narrowly concerned with files and papers left unattended for more than
continuing and encouraging artisanal products. half a century. The history of contingency of
Its links with the rural development and cottage forgetfulness stems not from a gap as it were,
industries of the province were over-emphasised but from the specific rationalities of the post-colo-
in contemporary literature at the expense of the nial state. The forgetfulness gestures towards
much wider influence the school has exerted the art and educational discourses of the post-
under the sway of the Arts and Crafts movement colonial state, which privileged a system of arts
over the construction of the Oriental canon in education hinged on the binary opposition of art
Northern India. Specifically, the contributions of and craft. Such formulations in current art histori-
the MSA and its large number of Indian teachers cal scholarship relocated the national cultural
and alumni to the Indo-Saracenic architecture development on the scale of post-world-war
and industrial arts of the Punjab through instruc- economic theories of progress and modernisa-
tion, commissions and exhibitions for more than tion as well as synchronised with the ideological
half a century, are passed over in silence [6]. Most discourses of the post-colonial state and national-

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ist intelligentsia (Ali 1997). Given the absolute Royal Institute of British Architects. The 335
dearth of primary sources for the history of the programme modules for BA and MA Fine Arts Nadeem Omar Tarar
MSA, prior to NCAA, such a conservative view of degree programmes in affiliation with Punjab
the school came to be established. It appears as University were also developed to strengthen
if a backward view of the MSA was based on a fine art education [14].
colonial sociology that had constructed Indian Commitments to technical assistance from
crafts as the historical residue of static, pre-indus- the United States were sought for the infrastruc-
trial India and was constantly invoked to exagger- tural development of the MSA. Spedding hoped
ate the post-colonial career of the NCA as a to stimulate production in textile and metal indus-
national art institution. tries with improved research in indigenous
designs, in addition to architecture at the School,
From MSA to NCA: the forward-looking years which would explore ‘research into tropical
The independence of Pakistan, the imperatives of domestic architecture ... leading to possibilities
economic planning coupled with the obligations of new industries’. The instruction for commer-
for nation building, dictated concerns for the reor- cial artists to work in the advertising industry was
ganisation of the MSA as part of the national tran- justified on economic grounds. A publicity art
sition from a traditional craft-oriented approach to studio was to be developed to give students
a modern design-oriented philosophy [10]. commercial and production experience before
Though officially inaugurated in October 1958 as joining industry. Three teaching posts were sanc-
a national institution, with three main depart- tioned for professors in Architecture, Industrial
ments in Fine Arts, Design and Architecture, the and Commercial Designing and Handicrafts
NCA remained in gestation for several years as along with the post of Principal, to form the
attempts to restructure and upgrade the MSA educational nucleus to streamline instruction at
began in the years after partition [11]. Sidney the MSA. As a result, three years before it was
Spedding, the last British Principal of the MSA, renamed the National College of Arts (which in
submitted a proposal to the Economic Planning popular lore is still called Mayo college), Sidney
Commission in 1954, ‘to develop Mayo School of Spedding declared it in a press article ‘as the only
Art into a National College of Arts on the basis of one which has the making of a National College
an institute of Industrial Design comparable in of Art for the country as a whole’ [15].
standards with European Institutions’ to be affili- The transition of the MSA to the NCA in the
ated with the Punjab University. According to his 1950s and 1960s also offers a parallel reading of
initial planning, it included training in architecture the making of the Pakistani state and society. The
to a qualified professional status, textile design partition of India left deep scars on the social body
and printing, pottery design and manufacture, of the MSA. More than half of the school popula-
commercial art, industrial design, general design tion, from faculty, students and staff, belonging to
including interior decoration, and general design the Hindu and Sikh religions left Lahore in 1947
[12]. The location of the school in proximity to and were scattered throughout India [16].
Lahore Museum, Punjab Public Library, the Paki- Reduced to a shambles in the aftermath of the
stan Arts Council, the Fine Art Society and Punjab partition of India, the MSA made a new beginning
University, equipped with a rich library where a as a national college of art to train young design-
Fine Arts department set up to teach women ers in ways similar to the attempts of the nascent
since 1941 was seen to provide ‘a balanced Pakistani state to develop its infrastructure and to
educational background necessary for students’ train citizens for a modern Islamic nation. The
development’ [13]. The entrance qualification for intersection of state discourse in the educational
the students was raised from higher secondary policy and planning of the NCA offers concen-
to matriculation at a minimum age of 16 years. trated readings of the ideologies of modernisation
Three-year courses on Architectural draughts- and development that had taken root in the devel-
manship were revised to suit the standards of the oping world. The first convocation report of the

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336 NCA on 15 June 1959 delivered by its first (Ameri- aesthetic form. Influenced by the reformative
Nadeem Omar Tarar can) principal, Mark Sponenburgh [17], draws on impulses of the German art movement, the Plan-
this parallel more explicitly: ning Commission aimed to increase the profi-
ciency of the skilled labour force to increase inno-
It is an interesting fact that the new National vatively designed consumer goods for local
College of Arts began its formal instruction on the consumption as well as for export.
6th of October 1958, and that a significant change In this vision of technical education for Paki-
in the Government of Pakistan took place on the stan, the NCA played a leading role in developing
following day on the October 7th. We are born in the technical resources of the country for urban
the climate of constructive change, and we pray industrial development. From concerns with
that we may contribute in this progressive and physical infrastructure to the appointment and
refreshing spirit. I hasten to add however that termination of services of the technical staff, the
there have been moments during the past Central Planning Commission monitored and
academic year when problems that the new reviewed all new projects for the conversion of
regime of this college faced seemed surprisingly the old MSA that were not in line with new polices
similar to those embodied in the national frame of being created at the centre. One of the ways to
reference [18]. strengthen the national college was to seek
foreign expert assistance as well as foreign quali-
The priorities of the first military regime of General fied Pakistanis. Consequently, in the initial years,
Ayub Khan, to whom Sponenburgh alluded, were NCA had a fair number of technical experts who
set squarely within the paradigm of modernisa- were brought in to design the curriculum, contrib-
tion and development of a new nation-state. ute to teaching and link it up with diploma and
Along with the formation of the NCA, the closing degree level technical education to serve the
decade of the 1950s saw the large-scale restruc- emerging urban-industrial economy.
turing of educational institutions under the new The NCA received generous assistance from
foreign assistance programmes sought out by the the Asia Foundation in terms of foreign faculty,
military regime. Three months after the capture of visiting fellowships, scholarships for students,
power, President Ayub Khan inaugurated a and visual materials sometimes laden with an
National Commission on Education to develop a explicit ideological agenda [22]. A large number
plan for ‘a re-organization and re-orientation of of books, journals, magazines and visual aid
existing educational system so as to evolve a material donated by the German Cultural Centre
national system, which would better reflect our and the United States Educational Foundation
spiritual, moral and cultural values’ [19]. The (USEF) made up the initial collection of the NCA
Harvard Advisory Group at the Central Planning library. For more than a decade, the USEF steered
Commission of Pakistan developed the second the development of the NCA by coordinating and
five-year plan in which technical education formed supporting the visits of American and European
the human core of the large-scale industrialisation teachers on short contracts. Kochi Takita (1960–
and did receive strong financial backup [20]. The 61) a Japanese artist, Professor Warren Barringer
presence of Walter Gropius at the Institute of (1960–62) a Canadian designer, and Dr Wallace
Design at Harvard in the post-war years might Spencer Baldinger (1960–61) a Professor, School
explain the proposals of the Harvard Advisory of Architecture and Allied Arts at Oregon Univer-
Group, and the consequent national policy empha- sity and Director of Museum of Art were respon-
sis to render architecture and consumer goods as sible for the reorganization of the ceramics,
functional, cheap and consistent with mass design and architecture departments at the NCA
production [21]. To this end, Gropius and his asso- respectively. Professor J. Palmer Boggs (1960–
ciates at the Bauhaus in the years between 1919 62), head of architecture at Oklahoma University,
and the 1930s had attempted to reunite art and taught courses in structural design and formed
craft to bring together functional products and the nucleus of the architecture department [23].

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Mary Lewis (1958–60), a Fulbright lecturer in fashioned’ and ‘lagging behind the spirit of times’ 337
sculpture, contributed to the teaching at the fine (Ali 1989, 222). Although Western styles of paint- Nadeem Omar Tarar
arts department at the NCA. Abbassi Akhtar, a ing had always formed the centre of gravity for
lecturer in design who was the first Pakistani generations of painters in colonial India, the
woman-artist at the NCA, took charge of the source of inspiration of Pakistani artists markedly
fundamental programme [24]. shifted from regional genres of art and literature
In its founding years, the NCA kept the policy to predominantly Western visual arts movements
of retaining teachers from the MSA who were such as expressionism, cubism, abstraction and
considered practising architects artists and impressionism which tapped a rich vein among
craftsmen in their respective specialised fields. art-school-educated artists in urban and educa-
However, a foreign qualification was invariably tional centres like Lahore and Karachi. Together
preferred over a local degree in the recruitment of with Zubaida Agha, Shakir Ali, Sadequain Naqvi
staff. For instance, out of three qualifying condi- and Ahmed Pervaiz, the new generation of
tions for the post of the principal of NCA, Lahore modern artists, created what Akbar Naqvi follow-
in 1962, the very first clause demanded a diploma ing Harold Roseberg has called the ‘tradition of
in Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art, London, the modern’ (Naqvi 1997). At Lahore, a British
or from other leading British or French universi- landscape painter, Anna Molka Ahmad, painted
ties [25]. The diploma holders of the MSA were and taught a generation of Pakistani modern
ranked lower in the official scale and placed in a artists. The modernity of the Pakistani artists
separate cadre to foreign-qualified persons. A stemmed as much from their subjects and
new category of gazetted teaching staff, themes as much from the institutional location
educated artists and critics, was added to the they belonged to. Any work which existed outside
establishment as lecturers and professors. A the institutional framework of gallery, exhibitions
crop of craftsmen from the MSA were retained as and art schools did not survive in the ‘tradition of
instructors, masters (and demonstrators) on a modern’ [27].
temporary basis. Among them only good, effi- Along with a national art college, the infrastruc-
cient and qualified hands were to be absorbed ture for creating a modern art, distinct from ‘tradi-
into the professional cadres. Ironically, even the tional’ crafts in Pakistan was scantly provided by
widely celebrated miniature painter Haji Muham- the federal government, by setting up the Karachi
mad Sharif, who joined the MSA in 1951, at the Fine Art Society in 1949, backed up by foreign
age of 60, was not granted status equal to that of diplomats. A nascent system of art schools,
a lecturer (with consequent low salary) during his formal associations, art galleries and exhibitions
entire career at NCA, on the basis that as a tradi- was put together to advertise the advent of the
tional practitioner he held no formal qualifica- contemporary art of Pakistan as the symbol of
tions. His lifetime experience could not earn him modernity of the nation. The Karachi Fine Art Soci-
professional status equal to an art school ety hosted the first solo exhibition of Zubaida
educated artist, in a field in which he was cele- Agha, the much acclaimed founder of the modern
brated over three generations of known ‘heredi- art movement in Pakistan and continued to exhibit
tary’ miniature painters [26]. and promote modern artists such as Shakir Ali, a
In the canons of nationalist art history in Paki- ‘radical manifestation of European modernism’ in
stan, the birth of modern art was signalled by the Pakistan in the 1950s [28]. In addition to the Paki-
break with the traditional style of painting, which stan Art Council at the federal capital Karachi,
had a strong public appeal. The works of A. R. regional chapters of art associations were opened
Chughtai, a student of MSA, who painted themes in Lahore and Decca to promote ‘contemporary
from Urdu and Persian poetry, and Ustad Allah art’ and art-school-educated artists [29]. From its
Baksh, a self-taught artist-craftsman of mytho- very inception, modern Pakistani art tended to
logical themes and village landscapes were draw its practitioners from a relatively privileged,
condemned by a new generation of artists as ‘old literate and upwardly mobile class of citizens who

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338 looked towards the West for inspiration and affili- ‘The completeness of every society must consist
Nadeem Omar Tarar ations. A much hyped event hosted by the Art of a capacity to recognize and utilize its native
Council was the Asian Art Critics Seminar, proudly artistic potentials.’ Against this background, he
announced to be the first of its kind to be held in brought out the educational philosophy of the
an Asian country, under the stewardship of Altaf NCA, organized along ‘modern lines … in order
Gauhar, the literary spin doctor of Ayub Khan’s that it can meet the challenge of our economically
regime. To be held between 28 November and 1 and industrially expanding society’. he went on:
December 1963 at Lahore, it was aimed at
enabling Pakistani artists to forge professional as This institution seeks to go beyond technical instruc-
well as institutional links with the International tion by placing emphasis on creative thought and
Association of Art Critics, which sponsored the action and to develop in students an awareness of
event. Moreover, the Seminar was intended to this essential unity of the visual arts both traditional
train the participants in ‘the systems of commer- and contemporary. In this respect, the National
cial gallery systems, possibilities of organizing College of Arts is similar to the Bauhaus school
composite Asian as well as national exhibitions where effort was made to integrate industry and
and projections of Asian Art within Asia’ [30]. As a visual arts in a harmonious whole [31].
logical outcome of looking to the West, the paint-
ers of a newly independent Pakistan ‘chose Amer- With explicit reference to the Bauhaus as a model
ican history to launch themselves into their orbits’, for developing the NCA, Sponenburgh inspired
a chapter in the history of Pakistan art whose students and teachers ‘to preserve folk arts which
trajectories are well charted (Naqvi 2001, 10). are in danger of being lost amid economic devel-
opment and social change’. In this task, the NCA
Post-Bauhaus influences at NCA: an aborted had to play a crucial role, to act as a centre of
agenda enlightened criticism and advice for craftpeople,
In the 1950s, when Shakir Ali began spreading as well as learn from the techniques and materi-
the gospel of modernism among educated artists als used by craftspeople to create a contempo-
of Lahore, Mark Sponenburgh, to use Akbar rary Pakistani art. ‘It calls for not only sifting and
Naqvi’s words, was ‘preaching Bauhaus philoso- preserving what is best in our tradition but also
phy’ among the teachers and students of the for revitalizing in harmony with the trends in the
NCA (Naqvi 2001, 35). The Bauhaus school, as it contemporary world’ [32]. He further stressed
is known, had a strong mandate to dissolve efforts being taken ‘to cultivate reputable stand-
certain artificial barriers, considered as an ards of taste and to give the students an apprecia-
unwanted residue of the earlier beaux-arts tradi- tion of indigenous traditions, and understanding
tions, hindering the integration of visual arts. The of the forms and functions of all the components
distinction between art and craft premised by of the traditional Design’. In his vision, the artists
utilitarian ideologies, which inhibits the integra- were to receive practical and professional studio
tion of artefacts within a unified aesthetic space, training and designers were trained to assess
was strongly contested by the proponents of the consumer needs and translate them into satisfy-
Bauhaus school. Sponenburgh turned out to be a ing products. Above all, he wanted architects
reformer administrator who raised the NCA on who could stimulate greater use of indigenous
the model of the Bauhaus school, with teaching material and could become by experience fully
in three main departments of art, design and qualified for professional practice [33]. In the
architecture – integrated in arts and crafts. modernisation of art education at NCA, tradition
In the first progress report of the NCA in 1958– was not to be ignored; in fact it was to be consti-
59, Sponenburgh described the objectives of tuted as one of the central coordinates for the
education at the NCA in the field of art, architec- construction of modern national identity:
ture and design education in phrases echoing the
Arts and Crafts movement and Kipling at MSA.

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It should be pointed out that although many of the domestic production through improved designs. 339
recommendations appearing in this report would He placed a strong emphasis on learning to work Nadeem Omar Tarar
point the college more in the direction of design with indigenous raw material and techniques ‘to
than of arts and crafts per se, every effort should appreciate both the possibilities and their limita-
be made to preserve traditional indigenous arts tions’. Students were encouraged ‘to learn about
and skills. Indeed the college should be a citadel and actually use the tools and processes that are
for defending and encouraging such traditional employed by the craftsmen in this country’ [36].
disciplines as miniature painting and calligraphy In his speech to the first World Congress of
for these might otherwise pass out of existence Craftsmen 1961, Sponenburgh reiterated one of
[34]. his commitments to define the objectives and
function of the NCA as a safe haven for handi-
The revivalist and preservationist concerns of crafts, which needed to be salvaged from the
national art were achieved by Sponenburgh by impending industrialisation. The fascination for
scouting the industrial centres set up by the industrial goods drove craftsmen to adapt to
Department of Industries, but also by accompany- machine aesthetics for making their product
ing students on field surveys and study trips to appears ‘modern’. As a result, he argued that
centres of artisanal productions and factories for ‘even the traditional producers of excellent hand-
research and instruction. One of the very first field- made objects prefer cheap machine-made
works in Northern Pakistan in the summer of 1960 designs in their flair to be modern’. He deplored
led to an ethnographic exhibition of Folk Arts of the cultural domination of British rule, which had
Swat held at the NCA gallery a year later in Febru- marginalised the popular pride on handicrafts
ary. The students made measured drawings, that were the products of the symbiotic relation
photographic surveys, rubbings and paintings as of ‘the craftsman and the public’. In his view, the
well as collecting samples of woodcrafts, jewel- craftsperson as the living embodiment of art and
lery, textiles, basketry and paintings. The exhibi- culture had been isolated from public patronage,
tion also travelled to Karachi where it was hosted causing stagnation in the tradition: ‘Experimenta-
by the Pakistan American Cultural Center. Later tion and research cease to be part of their crea-
the entire collection of artefacts became part of tive program.’ To rejuvenate the tradition, Sponen-
the ethnological gallery of the Lahore Museum. burgh argued, educational philosophy had to be
Sponsored by the Asia Foundation, the fieldwork developed to create a genuine appreciation and
was deemed the ‘first step to compile an index of acceptance of the handicrafts in the country. Mili-
Pakistani Design similar to the American Index of tating against older traditions of social and
Design’. The Swat valley fieldwork was followed aesthetic stratification, education at the NCA
by research on Sindh, especially Cholistan in aimed to free students from the psychology of
1961–62 and formed a unique craft collection of individual genius and help them attain status
the region. Both exhibitions travelled to London in satisfaction through their contribution to the over-
1962 as part of the Pakistan pavilion at the inaugu- all process of production.
ration of the Commonwealth Institute [35]. The first Pakistani principal of the NCA was
The department of design built on the legacy Shakir Ali (1962–75), who by virtue of his location,
of the Bauhaus which made its frequent appear- age and body of art work served as a paradigm
ance in industrial art discourses as part of a pack- for modern art and individual artist in the country
age to develop indigenous design industries [37]. In the eyes of critics, he inspired cubism
through professional training and supervision of among students and colleagues in the early
the craftsmen. James Warren, Visiting professor 1950s and as a result, ‘in less than a year, nearly
of Design at NCA, phrased the objectives of the every painter in Lahore, including many of the
design department in the light of the second five older ones, were using a cubist style introduced
year plan’s emphasis to conserve precious by Shakir Ali’ (Sirhindi 1997). Offering a visual
foreign exchange by increasing the sale of reference to the development of modern art in

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340 Pakistan, his oeuvre of paintings lends itself to a the curriculum of the NCA which aimed to bring
Nadeem Omar Tarar national cultural identity, as the national art estab- artists and craftspeople into an environment of
lishment combines a version of modern art, mutual learning, Shakir Ali considered the devel-
comprising of traditional and avant-garde. To lay opment of handicrafts a digression from the
claim to an unbroken lineage of national art concerns of the NCA. He asserted that the NCA
production, for the first National Art Exhibition in was primarily an educational institution and was
Dhaka (presently Bangladesh) in 1954, the then engaged in training students in Fine Art, Architec-
West Pakistan government selected the works of ture and Industrial Design. In his view, handicrafts
Shakir Ali and Zubaida Agha as torchbearers of were the historical residue of pre-industrial India,
Western styles of painting complemented by from which there was little to learn [40].
Chughtai and Allah Buksh as insignia of ‘tradi- Contrary to the NCA, the National Institute of
tional’ art. The signs of Western styles of painting, Design, Ahmadabad, in India successfully turned
amid more local styles rooted in the folk and the the principles of the Bauhaus to the service of the
past, were emblematic of the growth and matu- Indian economy. Indian Industrial designers drew
rity of a new nation. One of the unintended conse- on the skills and knowledge of self-taught artisans
quences of concerns with modern fine art move- to make hand manufacturing co-exist in a creative
ments in Pakistan was that the Bauhaus relationship with mass production. From product
philosophy of the college, with its explicit social- diversification to the revival of traditional designs in
ist orientations, was submerged and curtailed in new applications, from improvising artisan’s tools
fundamental ways in the process of the develop- to redesigning tools and workplaces, generations
ment of the NCA as a premier fine art institution. of Bauhaus designers in India gave hand manufac-
Occasionally individuals mourned the loss of ture a new lease of life (Chatterjee 1988).
the Bauhaus spirit which enabled the artists and In trying to duplicate its principles for reviving
craftsperson-designers to draw on indigenous and reinventing craft industries into modern
design traditions and skills for inspiration, innova- manufacture, the Bauhaus philosophy had a
tion and adoption. In November 1964, J. A. Rahim, short-lived career at the NCA. Sponenburgh’s
then Pakistani Ambassador in France, drew the strong inclination towards serving industry
attention of the Vice Chancellor Export Promotion through art and design education disappeared in
Bureau to the ‘complete lack of elementary artis- the context of the post-colonial identity politics of
tic training both among workmen and those nationalism and modernisation in a postmodern
responsible for our designing’ leading to a decline economic world. Its founding objectives based on
in exports of handicrafts [38]. In contrast to fine the principles of the Bauhaus, intending it to serve
art colleges in Europe, which served as the real the purpose of learning and educating the rural
suppliers of design ideas for industry, Rahim and urban worker were passed over, as by the
castigated the NCA for not doing enough to middle of 1960s, modern artists, largely comprised
educate the workpeople. This veteran Bengali of the first generation of NCA graduates began to
civil servant, who later wrote the socialist mani- look elsewhere for inspiration and critique.
festo of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the
late 1960s, echoed the Bauhaus ideology of the Postscript
integration of visual arts when he suggested that The National College of Arts has grown substan-
‘Art schools or colleges will have to be organized tially from a provincial art college under the Depart-
to take care of artists and the education of handi- ment of Industries to an autonomous federal insti-
craft workmen’ [39]. tution with its own Board of Governors with liberal
The letter was sent to Shakir Ali, who in credentials. While enjoying relative freedom from
response drew sharp distinctions between hand- the strictures of the state, it has emerged as
icraft, industrial art and fine arts, thereby rejecting centre of excellence in visual arts, which is pres-
the concerns expressed by the ambassador. ently offering advanced training in a wide range of
Contrary to the ideals of the Bauhaus set forth in creative arts. From its original areas of concentra-

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© 2008 The Author. Journal compilation © 2008 NSEAD/Blackwell Publishing Ltd
tion in visual arts such as fine art, design and archi- Notes 341
tecture, the NCA has initiated programmes in 1. See Anderson (1991), for a standard reference Nadeem Omar Tarar
performing arts such as musicology as well as on the formation of modern national and cultural
technology-based courses in multi-media arts and identity. See also Maniruzzaman (1967).
film and television. Though not yet a university, it
2. For a historical study of the Mayo School of
has earned an unofficial status of a university of
Arts, see Omar Tarar (2007). See also At-ullah
the arts with its geographical as well as thematic
(1997).
expansion. Spread over two campuses in two
major cities of Pakistan, the NCA continues to 3. For a historical overview of modern South
expand into higher education by offering doctoral Asian art history, see Mitter (1994).
programmes in cultural studies and art history. A
4. For examples of such constructions, see
large number of its students have fed into govern-
Hashmi & Mirza (1997); Mumtaz (1985); Wilcox
ment service as well as private business. Invaria-
(2000).
bly most of the contemporary artists, designers
and architects of Pakistan were trained at the 5. See Jain (forthcoming) for a contrasting
NCA. In the last two decades the artists of NCA perspectives on the shared history of visual arts
have gained an international acclaim and world- in South Asia.
wide exhibitions, by reworking the traditional
6. For an early example of South Kensington
practice of miniature painting into a contemporary
inspired colonial art education in late-nineteenth-
art form that confounds the distinction between
century Punjab, see ‘Historical Introduction’,
traditional and avant-garde (Bhabha 1999).
Choonara & Tarar (2003).
Whilst in the early years of the NCA craft was
being reformulated to marry with industry, in the 7. Satish Gujrl, a living legend of the Indian
later decades it was expelled from the registers contemporary art world, and a student of the
of art education, notwithstanding the fact that the Mayo School of Arts in the early 1940s
NCA continues to resonate with the older debates perpetuated a backward looking view of the
between tradition and modernity, art and craft, school. See, Gujral (1997).
and skills and creativity. This was signalled by the
fact that miniature painting, rejected as a tradi- 8. From Shakir Ali, Principal NCA to Naheed Khan,
tional craft for more than forty years, due to its the United States Education Foundation (USEF)
emphasis on copying and craftsmanship, had to in Pakistan, Karachi for a booklet ‘10 years of
be re-invented before it could be accepted as Academic Achievements in Pakistan’ which was
equal to the status of fine art. With a deeply to be published by USEF. See NCAA, Box File No.
entrenched system of modern galleries and exhi- 209-E, Directorate of Industries, West Pakistan
bitions in a globalised world which privileges art (1959–60).
school artists, the connoisseurship of modern art 9. One of the renowned graduates and teachers
in Pakistan has closed the doors on the traditional of the NCA, Salima Hashmi, who also served as
arts and self-taught artists of the country. Perhaps the artist principal of the college, could assume
it is only a resurgence of the Bauhaus spirit at the in a review essay on 50 years of visual arts in
NCA that can bring traditional crafts and fine arts Pakistan: ‘The archives and books of the Mayo
together with industry to strengthen the econ- School of Arts were destroyed or lost in the riots
omy and rejuvenate national culture. of 1947’ (Hashmi 1997, 70).

10. NCAA, Box File No. 273-E, Conversion of the

Mayo School of Arts into the National College of
Arts, Lahore (1958–59). ‘National College of Arts,
Information Bulletin No. 1’.

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342 11. NCAA, Box File No. 195-E, Scheme for the Dr Sponenburgh. He currently resides in Seal
Nadeem Omar Tarar Expansion in the Mayo School of Arts (1943–48). Rock, Oregon. For details of his early career at
NCA, see NCAA, Box File No. 293-E, Personal File
12. NCAA, Box File No. 273-E, Conversion of the
of Mark Sponenburgh, Part I–III (1957–61). Also
Mayo School of Arts into the National College of
see the following for details on his services in the
Arts, Lahore (1958–59).
USA: www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/
13. NCAA, Box File No. 273-E. monumentsMen/bio.aspx?personID=282&PDFn

14. NCAA, Box File No. 273-E. The classes for 18. NCAA, Box File No. 238-E, Convocation File
fine arts were initiated in 1956 with the help of (1958–66).
graduates from Punjab University, which had set
19. NCAA, Box File No. 54-E, Report of the
up a department of fine art in 1941, which ran
Commission on National Education (1958–59),
courses exclusive to women until then.
p. 5. The commission was chaired by S. M.
15. NCAA, Box File No. 202-E, Miscellaneous Sharif, Vice Chancellor of Punjab University
Reports on the Mayo School (1957–59). assisted by two American advisors, and two
renowned Pakistani academics, namely historian
16. A small number, however, rallied around S. L.
I. H. Qureshi, the ideologue of Two-Nation theory
Prasher, then Assistant Principal of the MSA, to
and scientist Dr Abdul Salam, the Nobel laureate.
relocate the school after partition in the Indian
soil. Such was the affiliation with the school that 20. In collaboration with Harvard University, the
the Government College of Art, Chandigarh Ford Foundation financed mainly American
(India) traced its origin from the MSA in 1875 and advisors on the newly created Planning Board of
included all the faculty of the school until 1947 Pakistan, which was entrusted with the task of
as part of their institutional heritage. For a brief preparing Pakistan’s second five-year plan for
overview of the College, see www. economic development. See Noman (1988).
artcollegechandigarh.org/history.html.
21. Bauhaus had major impact on art and
17. Sponenburgh (b. 1916), graduated from architecture trends in Western Europe and the
the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1940 and United States, the latter received the full crop of
then began working as a sculptor. After his Bauhaus graduates as most of the advocates of
distinguished military services during Second Bauhaus including Gropius were driven out by
World War, he attended the Ecole des Beaux the Nazi regime. Gropius taught at Harvard
Arts in Paris. He later received an AM from the Graduate School of Design in the post-world-war
University of Cairo in 1952 and his Master’s from period, and from there the influence of Bauhaus
the University of London in 1957. He received an spread further in the third world. See Benevolo
honorary doctorate from the National College of (1984).
Arts in 1970s. Dr Sponenburgh taught at the
22. NCAA, Box File No. 288-E, Free Cinema
University of Oregon from 1946 to 1956 and then
Shows to Educational Institutions (1949–72). In a
spent a year as a visiting professor at the Royal
leaflet announcing new film titles by USEF to be
College of Arts in London in 1957. In 1958,
shown to students at NCA including Anatomy of
Sponenburgh received a Fulbright research
Aggression, which describes ‘the techniques
fellowship and taught in Egypt before being
and tactics used by the Communists to gain
appointed as Principal of the NCA a year later.
control and enslave the people of free counties
He returned to Oregon in 1961 and embarked
since the end of Second World War. The same
on a lengthy career at Oregon State University,
techniques are being used to enslave the people
where he was named Professor Emeritus in
of Berlin.’.
1984. Today, the university maintains the
Sponenburgh Travel Award, which is awarded to 23. NCAA, Box File No. 238-E, Convocation File
a graduate student every year and endowed by (1959–66).

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24. NCAA, Box File No. 14-E, Visiting Lecturers at 33. NCAA, Box File No. 238-E, p. 278. 343
National College of Arts (1958–62). Nadeem Omar Tarar
34. NCAA, Box File No. 238-E, p. 256.
25. NCAA, Box File No. 29-E, Report of the
35. NCAA, Box File No. 175-E, Reports of the
Proceedings of the Principal Office (1955–69).
National College of Arts (1959–62).
26. NCAA, Box File No. 133-E, Personal File of
36. NCAA, Box File No. 175-E.
Haji Muhammad Sharif (1944–89).
37. For his lasting contribution to the
27. Sadequain, a truly eccentric genius who is
development of modern art in Pakistan, see Butt
counted in among the pioneers of modern art in
et al. (1982). See also Majeed (1987).
Pakistan, was also among the last of those self-
taught artists who had enormous potential to 38. J. A. Rahim spelled out the need to earn
grow outside the institutional locations of art foreign exchange by promoting exports in
production. Without any affiliations with art handmade artefacts. Carpets, embroidery,
institutions, he suddenly shot to fame in 1955, ceramics, brass and copper work were
when Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, then recommended for exports. He questioned the
Minister for Foreign Affairs and known patron of use of child labour in the carpet industry and
paintings, exhibited a large number of paintings expressed a need to improve the working
by Sadequain at his residence titled Exhibition of conditions of the workers. He recommended an
an Unknown Artist. For the next 32 years organisation be set up by the government for
Sadequain produced more paintings than other human welfare as well as rationalising the tools,
Pakistani artist, while maintaining his distance methods and working conditions of the workers.
from the art schools. J. A. Rahim, Ambassador to France, to Wazir Ali,
Vice Chancellor, Export Promotion Bureau, 1964.
28. Shakir Ali joined the Mayo School of Arts in
NCAA, Box File No. 21-F, Correspondence with
1954 as Lecturer in Art. Apart from being the only
the Principal Office (1955–69).
‘foreign qualified’ gazetted officer at Mayo
School, he officiated as the principal of the NCA 39. NCAA, Box File No. 21-F.
in its early transitional years before being
40. NCAA, Box File No. 21-F.
confirmed on the job in 1962. See NCAA, Box
File No. 80-E, Personal File of Shakir Ali, Part I–IV
(1954–76).
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