Reviewed by Seher Naveed

REBEL Angel is a monograph on the inimitable and remarkably influential artist Asim Butt. Edited by Nafisa Rizvi, the book features the rich body of work Butt produced during his short but incredible career. Richly illustrated and packed with essays, Rebel Angel explores not just the artist’s quest to paint but also his interest in painting. Its compilation could be perceived as a challenge but nevertheless bold in execution and emotion.

Asim Butt was relentless; a visual thinker, endlessly engaged with the process and history of painting. Fascinated with the limits of representation, the range of subject matter in his studio works and public art are clearly visible in the publication — for Butt was not just a practicing artist but also an avid theoretical researcher. The monograph includes an essay written by the artist himself on the comparative analysis of art and illustration. The essay, which has never before been published and was perhaps written for his own search and realisation, addresses issues close to the artist, while examining the histories and criticism of Eastern and Western art practices.

A rebel with a cause, Butt’s work was brave. Ambitious in the magnitude and depth of research, his use of medium, from oil on canvas, to charcoal on paper and spray paint on walls, reveals intriguing perspectives on materiality, subject matter and his way of deconstructing the many aspects of everyday existence. In 2005, Butt founded the Stuckist art movement in Karachi to further promote figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art. He was compulsively engaged with the human body and portraiture to articulate the psychological conditions of corporeal existence, identity and belonging.

The monograph includes assertively just about all of Butt’s work — even those that were left unfinished. These are further supported with essays written by those who knew the artist professionally and personally. That is not to say that the publication offers just personal perspectives but, in fact, has been compiled for a larger audience — an insight into the controversial and unique works of the artist. Naiza Khan’s essay titled ‘A Secret Laboratory: The Sketch Books of Asim Butt’ offers an excellent and detailed analysis of the artist’s sketchbooks and notes. A consistent visual diarist, Butt was always seen with a sketchbook, in which he would constantly pose questions, interrogate and search for answers. With the piles of notes, dairies and sketchbooks Butt left behind, Khan has managed to brilliantly articulate the concerns and struggles within his practice. The drawings reproduced in the monograph are mostly in charcoal, pencil and ink and while research and ideas of many can be determined in his paintings, there are a few still in incubation, waiting to be resolved.

It is not often that one gets to view an artist’s drawing book with such scrutiny, for it is a space only for the artist’s private use and not the public eye. However, through the inclusion of Butt’s sketches in this publication readers will not only be able to measure his work in depth but also cross-reference them to other documented art works in the book.

Rebel Angel is abundant with illustrations ranging from the artist’s sketchbook drawings to oil on canvases and public interventions. However, it lacks chronology; thus, making it difficult to study his work in terms of artistic progress. Having said that, with the inclusion of in-depth essays and text, one is able to delve into the enigma that is Asim Butt.

As passionately preoccupied Butt was in his studio, he similarly saw the street as a space where art could be further explored. In his essay, Raza Rumi addresses the artist’s engagement in the public sphere, whereby Butt fearlessly tackled socio-political issues through murals and graffiti. His public artworks were robust and influential, yet difficult to summarise. “It delved into the personal and the political with relative ease. More importantly, it challenged orthodoxies and defied the Islamism and militarism of Pakistani public spaces,” explains Rumi. While it’s true that these works did not survive or were not expected to last long, we ignore the fact that image and narrative always surpass the hard facts of aesthetic achievement. And Butt had many narratives yet to set ablaze.

Brought to a close by his untimely death in 2010 at the age of 32, Butt’s activities spanned barely a decade but his work, in Pakistan, introduced radical new modes of exploring the urban and social environment.

The publication, which was designed by The Second Floor (T2F), offers in-depth readings of Butt’s work in the form of new essays, a previously published interview and a DVD of a film called Graffiti Yatra, which explores his travels within the country, during which he stenciled his graffiti on many walls.

Rebel Angel is a book definitely not devoid of emotion, memory and nostalgia. Butt was not shy; he painted loudly, and was in constant search. He painted because it allowed him to “stare shamelessly” (taken from a poem written by Asim Butt). This is why his extra-ordinary ideas, bold experiments and powerful works have inspired many and many more to come.

This is a book that will help continue and honour the legacy of the artist, gone too soon, Asim Butt.

The reviewer teaches at the Department of Fine Art at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.

Rebel Angel

(ART)

Edited by Nafisa Rizvi

Markings Publishing, Lahore

ISBN 978-969-9251-45-0