When considering the art of Muslim South Asia, one thinks of miniature paintings rich with details of Mughal emperors and their courts. For those who assume that innovation ceased in Indo-Muslim painting in the eighteenth century, Iftikhar Dadi's important book invites them to think again. Dadi introduces a group of Pakistan-based artists who have embraced transnational modernism, and argues that subjectivity and abstraction, two salient characteristics of modernism, have deep roots in Muslim pictorial art. In this, Dadi demonstrates once again that tradition and modernity are not mutually exclusive categories in South Asian cultural history. He also addresses the complex interaction of modernist Muslim painting with Urdu poetry, and the relationship of their combined cultural expression with the politics of the nationalist movement and the social upheavals of partition. This is thus a work, not only of art history, but also of cultural studies in the broadest sense. Dadi's analysis is complex, impressively documented, and richly illustrated. In this, the University of North Carolina Press deserves credit for the beautiful production of the book and its illustrations.

Dadi devotes a chapter to the painting of Abdur Rahman Chughtai, best known for his nostalgic evocation of Mughal miniatures. Chughtai was a product of a lineage of painters and craftsmen in the Punjab. This tradition was transformed during his lifetime by changing systems of patronage, by the impact of print on the dissemination of visual imagery, and by the emergence of formal schools of art in Bengal and the Punjab that gave new individuality to the painter as artist. Chughtai illustrated the poetry of Ghalib and Iqbal and thus became known for the fluidity of his graphic art. His sinuous lines transformed Mughal imagery. This is not nostalgia so much as a radical reinterpretation of supposedly traditional themes. The first illustration in the book shows an etching by Chughtai of a Mughal artist: in a rocky landscape, wearing a turban, kaftan, jewelry—all familiar tropes—and yet, this artist is strikingly individuated, with exaggerated features, elongated neck and fingers, more a heroic figure than a household retainer. Chughtai does not borrow his modernism from the West so much as extract it from the distinctiveness of his own heritage, reinterpreted for a modern audience.

Dadi then profiles the art of more recent figures: Zainul Abedin, Zubeida Agha, and Shakir Ali. Abedin, trained in Calcutta, was best known before partition for his powerful, expressionist drawings of victims of the Bengal famine of 1943. He was the founder and principal of the Institute of Fine Arts in Dhaka and guided generations of East Pakistani/Bangladeshi artists. Zubaida Agha trained in Lahore, painted in a strikingly abstract style that reminds one of Kandinsky, and directed the Rawalpindi Art Gallery for sixteen years. Shakir Ali, trained in Bombay and London, allied himself with the Urdu Progressive Writers Association, and was principal of the National College of Art in Lahore from 1961 to 1975. All three headed institutions that enriched the art world in Pakistan, encouraged younger artists, and promoted a subjective vision that had its roots in everyday reality.

The star of the book is the “calligraphic modernist,” Sadequain. Calligraphy has always been the salient characteristic of Islamic arts of the book. Calligraphy could be both abstract, rendering the word of God in mystical form, and the vehicle for transmission of knowledge throughout the Muslim world. Sadequain is the closest of the artists discussed here to the stereotype of the wandering bohemian, or itinerant Sufi qalandar, migrating from India to Pakistan to Paris and back to Karachi, becoming famous for his jagged, calligraphic abstractions, murals of heroic figures, and highly sexualized sketches of himself as a beheaded artist with his model. The latter recall the late style of Picasso, and yet are eerily original, as are his illustrations of Ghalib's poetry.

The book concludes with an account of two contemporary artists, Rasheed Araeen and Naiza Khan, plus an epilogue briefly listing a number of younger figures in the Pakistani art world. This bewildering variety of creative talent leads one to conclude that the visual arts in Pakistan are alive and well. One cannot necessarily tell a book by its cover, but this one carries a striking image: a print by Naiza Khan entitled “Khamosh” (Silent). It shows the pelvic area of a female form, strapped in a chastity belt. Naiza Khan has also made metal sculptures of female body and pelvic armor, reminding us that the burqa is not the only garment, nor Islam the sole religious culture, that silences feminine expressiveness. Is this perhaps a further comment by Dadi and his representative artists on various forms of transnational modernism? This is a challenging and enlightening book that anyone interested in the many varieties of modern Muslim culture should read.