ike every person of a certain age, family background, income level, gender and profession who dreams of owning a house, a nation aspires to have its own permanent art space – adorned with works by its own artists as well as those from abroad. The Islamic Republic had to wait sixty years to acquire a purpose-built national art gallery – unsurprising for a state that took 26 years after independence to produce a consensus constitution.

Architect Naeem Pasha’s recent publication, Documenting the National Art Gallery Pakistan, tells the story of this historical venture, which culminated on an august day in 2007 when Gen Pervez Musharraf, then president of Pakistan, inaugurated the newly constructed National Art Gallery in Islamabad. The inauguration featured “a grand exhibition [titled Moving Ahead] arranged by fourteen curators.”

In his book, Pasha reveals that the General’s “curiosity about the unfinished National Art Gallery propelled its completion.” Before securing its permanent venue, the National Art Gallery was housed in rented spaces, moving from one house in Islamabad to another, shifting across sectors and buildings. In the late 1970s, it was located in a large house in F-7/2. Later, it was relocated to a building in F-7/4 and then to F-5/1.

The book, an impressive publication by Le Topical Pvt Ltd, Lahore, sheds light on the journey, efforts, decisions and deviations involved in bringing an idea to fruition. It traces the story from April 30, 1997, when the foundation stone was laid by Shahnaz Wazir Ali, special assistant to prime minister (Benazir Bhutto), accompanied by the secretary of culture, Hassan Raza Pasha, and Begum Rana Sheikh, to the opening ceremony on August 26, 2007. The event was attended by numerous artists, curators and art educators from across Pakistan.

When a visitor enters a gallery and looks at a painting hanging on the wall, they typically have no idea about the various stages of its evolution: inspirations, references, preliminary sketches, initial marks on the surface, earlier experiments, later decisions, or major transformations (in some cases). All these are the private property of the artist – some in the form of physical documentation, snapshots or scribblings, but most buried behind the final layer. Unless the artists share their notes, pictures and recollections, this valuable body of information remains a secret.

Naeem Pasha, the esteemed architect of the National Art Gallery, delves into the personal and public history behind the creation of this monumental space in his book. He describes how the brick structure, lined with bands of white stone, featuring high ceilings, arches and halls filled with natural light, came to its present form after a journey marked by design modifications and a change of site.

Masood Ahmed Khan, in the third chapter of the book, informs readers that Naeem Pasha’s firm won the project in a design competition in 1989. Habib Fida Ali and Nayyar Ali Dada were runners-up. He adds, “The design which won the competition was created for the site’s original location in Islamabad, where the Prime Minister’s Office complex now stands on Constitution Avenue.”

The design of the present National Art Gallery evolved through a series of working sketches, measured drawings, mechanical renderings and coloured views, starting with the initial version prepared for the 1981 competition and culminating in the winning layout executed in 1989-90. The process included various proposals for materials, particularly the outer layer – ranging from red brick and glass to the current combination of yellow bricks, stone and aluminium.

The book also includes the proposal for NAG’s suggested site in F-9 Park (1995), illustrating how a change in surroundings influences the materials, layout and details of a structure, even when serving the same function.

In the corpus of Pakistani cultural history, essays, chapters and books often focus on exhibitions and artists. Architecture is typically considered separate or less relevant. The current exhibition, Manzar, at the National Museum of Qatar in Doha, is a rare – if not the first – project to offer a comprehensive narrative of creative production in Pakistan. It encompasses drawings, paintings, posters, photographs, digital prints, video projections, sculptures, installations, sound pieces, architectural drawings, building models and images of significant constructions spanning more than 80 years.

One reason for the notable absence of architecture in cultural narratives is that buildings designed by architects are owned by individuals and, unlike works of art, are not displayed in galleries before reaching their final form or phase. Moreover, they are not produced at the speed or in the numbers comparable to works of art.

Another factor contributing to the ‘invisibility’ of these concrete and steel structures is that they are always created for a client, shaped to meet their requirements, ideas, aspirations and opinions. In this sense, a space designed for artistic activities — whether teaching, displaying or storage — intrinsically becomes a significant part of art history.

The houses we build reflect not our physical appearance, but our preferences, experiences, limitations, resources and ambitions. Similarly, buildings that house art — whether objects or activities — mirror the features, concerns, concepts and debates of the art they contain.

In this context, the building of Pakistan’s National Art Gallery reflects the state and condition of the country’s art, particularly during the periods that align with its progression from proposal drawings to physical completion. The artistic element is strongly evident in its design, as Naeem Pasha, in addition to being an architect, is also a painter, gallerist and poet.

In the publication, Pasha remarks: “To me, every bit of the National Art Gallery is in many ways poetry.” He recounts a conversation with Faiz Ahmed Faiz, where he sought to learn from the legendary poet’s experiences in crafting meaningful contributions to architecture. Faiz, in turn, shared his meeting with the celebrated Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy. “For Fathy, a building is a miniaturised version of the essence of nature. The building must harness nature in such a way that it is not taken for granted; in fact, the building’s interaction with the elements should be enhanced.”

This dialogue highlights how both art and architecture can transcend their physical forms, embodying deeper connections with nature and the human experience.

In the case of the National Art Gallery, two kinds of nature are at play. One is the physical environment, including geography and materials; the other is the nature of art itself. The gallery succeeds in both respects, justifying and complementing the art of Pakistan by reflecting its cultural diversity and deep historical roots.

In his Architect’s Preface, Naeem Pasha aptly reminds us: “A narrow nationalism has allowed us at times to think of the history of the land as the 77 years of Pakistan’s existence. The land that we sit on has seen the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mehrgarh, Gandhara and Takhtbai — over five thousand years of history, habitation, culture and creation.”

This perspective underscores the gallery’s role as not just a modern institution but as a space that honours the extensive and layered heritage of the region, bridging millennia of artistic and cultural expression.

The multiplicity of history, habitation, culture and creation, besides being embedded in the design of the project, was vividly illustrated in the 14 exhibitions curated for the opening of the National Art Gallery. These exhibitions are extensively documented in Documenting the National Art Gallery Pakistan by Naeem Pasha.

The writer is an art critic, a curator and a professor at the School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.