Anyone who has had to analyse an artwork by squinting at a small and hazy image of it knows the horror of poor documentation. The same horror awaits anyone brave enough to want to undertake an honest research on a modern Pakistani artist. There are a few exceptional books out there, such as Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia by Iftikhar Dadi, that offer both factual and interpretative material on Pakistani art in its diverse forms. But there exists a sprawling, dark space — still rife with unnamed images of lost artworks, unverified snippets about the obscurer parts of many modern artists’ lives, assumptions passed off as facts, fabrications passed off as original works — that threatens the proper preservation of our brief but eclectic visual history as an independent country.

Fortunately, over the past few years, museums, galleries and institutions that are not entirely at the mercy of government-ordained budgets and bills have begun to contribute in various creative ways to the documentation of Pakistani art. This, of course, has to do with a slowly growing appetite for art in our society, readier technology such as digital cameras and scanners, and a surge in international travel, especially among those belonging to the creative fields. Increased physical and virtual mobility has led to a more rapid exchange of ideas and inspirations and we see, today, a number of local galleries producing sophisticated catalogues and monographs to accompany their exhibitions. Often, they collaborate with young curators and artists who have studied research methodology and art theory and wish to try different means of making an exhibition endure in printed and photographic forms, even after it has come off of gallery walls and floors.

Alhamra Art Gallery in Lahore has always issued a catalogue to go with its huge, inclusive, annual exhibition of young artists. It is a wonderful gesture on the gallery’s part, as the catalogue always features the complete collection of works displayed. However, the trend is not widespread in Lahore and Islamabad and galleries here only sporadically arrange for such documentation. Galleries and artist collectives based in Karachi seem much more dedicated, at present, to exploring ways of exhibiting and documenting local art. The IVS Gallery, for example, together with VASL Artists’ Collective, launched Drawing Documents in 2015 — a series of shows and catalogues investigating drawing as an artistic tool and process.

There exists a sprawling dark space that threatens the proper presentation of our visual history

Sanat Initiative is another gallery which has organised some very unique shows and perseveres in providing a catalogue with each and every one of them. This is commendable as it shows an investment by the gallery not only in a show that may or may not bring in money but in the responsible archiving of contemporary Pakistani art. In 2016, to celebrate its first 50 shows, the gallery published The First 50, a book comprising all the textual content that had appeared, till then, in its catalogues.

The text of exhibition catalogues is usually made up of curatorial notes, artists’ biographies and statements, and essays or ruminations on the artworks by critics and writers. Some of the more unconventional shows — such as a group exhibition titled “Love Letters”, envisioned and curated by visual artist Mohsin Shafi at Sanat Initiative earlier this year — encourage equally inventive ways of documentation. The catalogue for “Love Letters” was a narrow, brown, paper envelope carrying a sheaf of papers with the participating artists’ pictures and statements on them, presented as letters.

South Asia, interestingly, was once steeped in the art of the book. Our bejewelled folios bearing text and illustration are some of the finest examples of visual archiving. It is unfortunate that so much of our art, post-independence, did not see the same reverence. But the oversights can be redeemed. Just a couple of years ago, the Lahore Biennale Foundation awarded a research fellowship to visual artist and writer Saira Ansari, to trace and document the life and work of Zubeida Agha.

There is hope that that black expanse full of truncated biographical paths and the hazards of guesswork can be overcome with research and the opportunities to support it.

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 30th, 2017