Pakistan and Beyond: The Art of Partition and Confederation

Building an internationalist framework for the study of art and architecture in postcolonial Pakistan and surrounding regions

Black-and-white photograph of an architectural model depicting architect Richard Neutra’s design for the United States Embassy in Karachi, Pakistan, outfitted with scale trees and plants.

Model of United States Embassy in Karachi, Pakistan, 1957, Richard Neutra, architect, photo by Julius Shulman. Julius Shulman photography archive, Getty Research Institute, 2004.R.10. © J. Paul Getty Trust

About

Goal

This project addressed art and architecture in Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent after partition in 1947. It contended that Pakistan, as a newly created nation-state, embodied the desire for a Muslim state as well as a postcolonial one. The research explored how various media engendered competing ideological concerns, such as those related to the Cold War and the Non-Aligned Movement. Accordingly, this study foregrounded the concept of “Pakistan” as a methodological tool to expand postcolonial research of South Asia.