As boundaries slowly dissolve and interactive realities become evident, the cultures of India and Pakistan are beginning to draw attention. Recent exchanges have taken place in the realm of music, cinema, and other cultural forms. Moreover, both nations share a heritage of Mughal miniatures, Rajasthani and Pahari art, and are bound together by history and the problematics of the present. The contemporary art of the two countries, in all it vitality, today has a fascinating new identity. This richly illustrated book reveals the heterogenous, complex, and vibrant life of the subcontinent of South Asia that is reflected through both Pakistani and Indian art.

With their vast, chaotic landscapes, and a multiplicity of languages and cultures, the cities of South Asia, whether Karachi or Mumbai, Lahore or Delhi, have a distinct identity even as they make their presence felt on the global stage. They form the nucleus for on the global stage. They form the nucleus for a pluralistic art, and an ever-increasing market for its consumption. At the same time, South Asian art, in its own unique, authentic format, is crossing new cultural and geographic borders to become transnational.

In the first part of the book, Salima Hashmi introduces the art practices of Pakistan, since Partition, and their historical background. She goes on to discuss the subversive work of women artists, who have recently asserted themselves. The section ends with an overview of artists who have blended rather uniquely the miniature tradition with contemporary trends.

The second part by Yashodhara Dalmia, begins with the historical development of art in India from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. There follows a focus on the Progressive Artists' Group, which leaned heavily towards modernism in the fifties, and remains of paramount importance today. The essay on women artists brings issues of self, country, and the world to the forefront. The last two chapters provide an account of the hybrid styles incorporated into the work of young artists, which are at once international and local.

This book will be invaluable for art lovers and critics, as well as the general reader in the subcontinent and around the world.

Yashodhara Dalmia is an art historian and Independent curator based in New Delhi. She is the author of The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives (OUP, 2001), Amrita Sher-Gil: A Life (2006), and The Painted World of the Warlis (1988). She has also edited Contemporary Indian Art: Other Realities (2003). She has curated exhibitions on the Progressive Artists' Group, F. N. Souza, and other modern and contemporary artists. She is presently working on a project on South Asian modernity.

Salima Hashmi is Dean at the School of visual Arts at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. She taught at the National College of Arts (formerly the Mayo School of Arts) Lahore, for thirty years. She was also the Principal of the College for four years, and held the post of Professor of Fine Arts. She is a painter of repute whose works have been exhibited in Pakistan as well as internationally. She has written extensively on the arts, and has curated exhibitions of contemporary art, in Pakistan, India, Britain, US, Australia, Morocco, France, and Norway.