Karachi-based artist Amin Gulgee’s three-decade-long oeuvre spans steel sculptures, daring efficiency artwork, and collaborative curation. A well-structured new quantity on his work, titled Amin Gulgee: No Man’s Land and edited by John McCarry, is neither absolutely tutorial nor a list raisonné; it balances the 2 approaches with loads of photographs, candid writings penned by Gulgee’s artwork comrades, and overly temporary semi-scholarly essays. I’ll borrow author H. M. Naqvi’s phrases from his personal partaking essay on Gulgee’s extravagant performances: The opulently illustrated hardcover “calls for consideration,” as does the artist himself.
Right here’s why: Solely a handful of books have introduced a essential discourse on Gulgee’s stimulating artwork follow. Within the seminal 1998 e book Picture and Identification: Fifty Years of Portray and Sculpture in Pakistan, the late Pakistani artwork historian Akbar Naqvi hinted at his disdain for the artist’s characterization of his personal work as “Islamic artwork.” Twenty-six years and several other catalogs later, No Man’s Land amends this hole by revealing pluralistic views on Gulgee’s work.
From couture jewellery and biomorphic types to mathematical and monumental constructions, Gulgee’s copper works illustrate his mastery of fabric and method. His textured self-portraits are self-deprecating. The smoother calligraphic designs are soothing. Invoking spirituality and science, they current an exigent engagement between Islamic and South Asian custom and trendy artwork via what artwork historian Kishwar Rizvi calls a “vary of formal methods, on his personal phrases” in her essay. Scholar Simone Wille additionally writes concerning the modular qualities of Gulgee’s sculptures, like “Metropolis II” (2006) and “Towers” (2008), that are made by welding copper sheets and meant to be considered from all sides. Sadly, each essays add little to present views on the artist and ended abruptly. I craved extra.
In the meantime, in a refreshing interview, curator Maryam Ekhtiar asks the artist pertinent questions on his fascination with sculpture, scale, and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on his follow. Gulgee demystifies his course of: He doesn’t sketch. The sculptures are created intuitively in his studio, the place he’s “beholden to his course of.” He doesn’t take commissions as a result of they cage his artistic license. He counts the Mughal charbagh or cross-axial backyard, Louise Bourgeois’s “Spider” (1996), Karachi’s disappearing botal gali or bottle road which will get its title from outlets promoting fragrance bottles, verses from the Qur’an, and Gaudi’s Park Güell in Barcelona amongst of his inspirations. Notably, the artist recollects the trauma he endured within the wake of the 2007 murders of his dad and mom — the internationally famend artist Ismail Gulgee and his spouse Zaro. He displays on discovering recuperation via performative works like “Therapeutic” (2010), through which audiences watched as Gulgee’s fellow artists shaved his head. He reenacted the efficiency as Therapeutic II within the midst of loss of life within the pandemic, this time with out onlookers.
A heartfelt notice by the artist, printed adjoining to a drawing, “Portrait of My Son (1982), sketched by the senior Gulgee, informs us that the e book’s contributors — comprising artists, curators, artwork historians, a political scientist, and an writer — got no restrictions on their essays. That freedom facilitated distinctive approaches: a unusual essay by artist-curator Alexi Value, who playfully mentions Gulgee’s eccentric social antics, and a bit by tutorial Gemma Sharpe inserting his efficiency in dialog with that of different Pakistani artists corresponding to Durriya Kazi and the late Ali Imam, in addition to Marina Abramović.
It speaks volumes concerning the values of prioritizing business success over essential inventive discourse in Pakistani publishing that, regardless of Gulgee’s affect, No Man’s Land is the primary complete monograph on the artist. It definitely shouldn’t be the final.
Amin Gulgee: No Man’s Land (2025), edited by John McCarry, is printed by Skira and is out there on-line and thru unbiased booksellers.
