Opinion Review - Muniza Agha Fawad

The Politics of Pigmentation

I cannot take credit for coining this clever phrase. Instead, credit goes to Dr. Akbar Naqvi. While the presence of camps and politicking was something I was warned about when I first began writing about art in 2006, I managed never to run into problems with either. Rarely did anyone ever backbite about anyone else in my presence, and rarely did anyone exhibit petty and high-school’ish mentalities. Most importantly, I was lucky enough, and happy to see that never did an artist, a gallerist, a teacher, or a patron cut down anyone else’s hard work or attack anyone’s reputation. In fact, I thought all this talk about the “proliferation of powerful lobbies” within the art scene was a bit of an exaggeration and that rather, there were just cliques present, to which people belonged, for whatever reason, and that these cliques were just that.

Perhaps the odds were against me after five years of writing about art, or the time had just come for me to have not one, not a couple, but several uncomfortable run-ins with this ugly side of the art world. The need for recognition for contributions and hard work is one matter, but to attack another’s efforts is just wrong, but unfortunately normal, as professional jealousy and differences in working style and approach can cause conflicts and animosity. But does it have to go so far?

What is truly alarming are the attacks on others’ reputations and character. So easily gallery owners and managers like to claim that the next gallery deals in fakes, employs forgers, or outright steals original works from artists and clients. Some artists have ‘confided’ that their fellow painter or sculptor actually creates copies and counterfeits for the thriving and profitable demands of the market. At other times, collectors indulge in the mud-slinging too, accusing other collectors of such heinous acts as enabling self-destructive habits of an artist just to exploit them, or to collect forgeries and sell them off for huge profits because they know they have a reputation of remarkable taste in art. Such accusations are made almost willy-nilly it seems, when in reality they are very serious and criminal allegations. Too bad the act of committing character-assassination does not carry with it the same stigma, because maybe then people would think twice before speaking.

Politics is an unfortunate by-product of any organized sector. Interest, power, profit, and recognition are just some of the factors that lead us social creatures to politick, and it has now become integral to our survival in any professional field. But does it have to be this dirty? The arts have been known for taking a stand for what’s right, for fighting the injustices of the establishment, for being the voice of the unheard. Can that be said for the arts now, as organized, as politicized, and as price and power-driven as it is?

Ideally, the art world is where expression and the ability to articulate something intangible is to be valued. Instead, the race to increase profits has perverted art in every way, and lead to the spawning of many annoying and dangerous phenomena, including camps and cliques. Whether it’s just the need for camaraderie, or the belief that strength lies in numbers, the raison d’etre for belonging to, or establishing a clique in the art world, seems to be the singular desire for validation. Who does not want to be told that they are doing a good job? And who really wants to be told that they are not doing a good job? The clique ensures that members will pat one another’s back, even if undeserved, because the unwritten rule of membership dictates that everyone applauds one another, and that the applause is reciprocated all around. In Pakistan’s art scene, where there is an absence of real art criticism, but plenty of art-writers, the cliques formed extend from beyond artists and their curator friends and patrons, and include writers about art.

Writers and commentators on art are also being reeled in, whether they know it or not, and are being used simply because they have the power to bring attention to a show or to an artist. What is really unfortunate and sad is that some of the most senior and serious of art writers, who hold the knowledge and the understanding that would make their roles as critics invaluable to Pakistani art have all but backed away, creating a distance between them and the art world, which really has turned into nothing more than politicized pigmentation! I don’t blame these people for refusing to share valuable insights or contribute to the arts in Pakistan by lending criticism, but I do believe that their backing away is a form of retreat. They have all but allowed the politicking to totally and completely corrupt the art world of Pakistan, which I believe is still young and can be saved. Although the disgusting displays put forth by the very people whom I believed to be part-taking in a noble movement has left me disenchanted and ready to exit, I am not quite ready to give up. It’s easy to stand back and to point fingers, but it’s unfair to not try and be part of the solution. If there is one lesson that the greatest artists have left to this world, it is that amazing and beautiful things can happen if you remain true to yourself- not to some clique!