Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art and an independent charity opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985. Exhibitions which drew upon the collection of Charles Saatchi, starting with US artists and minimalism, moving to the ...
Your Gallery. Retrieved 26 February 2008."Artist Commits Suicide" , Daily Times (Pakistan), 15 January 2010. Retrieved 15 January 2010. was a Pakistani painter and sculptor, with an interest in
graffiti
Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
and
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...
art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined ...
and founder of The Karachi Stuckists."Stuckist groups" stuckism.com. Retrieved 26 February 2008.
Life and work
Asim Butt was born in
Karachi
Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
. He attended Li Po Chun United World College. He started painting at an early age, but at his parents' insistence, went to college, where he studied Social Sciences from the
Lahore University of Management Sciences
Lahore University of Management Sciences, also known by its acronym LUMS, is a Private university, private research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1985, it is ranked as one of the most prestigious modern Li ...
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
,
United States of America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...
, but left the course after two years, when he participated in a group show mounted at the
San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy in San Francisco, Cal ...
Gallery in March 2002 with Rigo '02 and LYRIC. He then returned to enroll in a B.F.A. in Painting in Karachi.
He participated in group shows in Karachi and Lahore, and in 2003 painted two murals in the environs of the shrine to the 8th Century
Sufi
Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism.
Practitioners of Sufism are r ...
saint
Abdullah Shah Ghazi
Abdullah Shah Ghazi () (c. 720 - c. 773) was a Muslim mystic and Sufi whose shrine is located in Clifton in Karachi, in Sindh province of Pakistan.
Life in Sindh
Abdullah Shah Ghazi was born in 98 Hijri Or 109 Hijri. In 738 he came to Karac ...
. This is an area visited by many people each day and also home to many of Karachi's homeless, including transgender people, beggars and drug addicts. One mural, about America's Shock and Awe campaign in Iraq, was called, ''5 Ways to Kill a Man'',Baig, Amina "Of Karachi, by Karachi, for Karachi" , The News on Sunday. Retrieved 26 February 2008. inspired by
Edwin Brock
Edwin Brock (19 October 1927 – 7 September 1997) was a British poet. Brock published ten volumes of poetry from 1959 through his death in 1997.
Two of Brock's poems In particular -- ''Five Ways to Kill a Man'' (1972) and ''Song of t ...
's poem. The other was about glue-sniffing children he encountered, while painting the first mural. Both murals were later whitewashed by city authorities.
In 2005, Butt founded the Karachi chapter of the
Stuckist
Stuckism () is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson (artist), Charles Thomson to promote Figurative art, figurative painting as opposed to conceptual art.Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi. In 2007, he participated in group shows, ''13 Satellites'' (Lahore), ''Emerging Talent'' (Karachi) and ''Sohni Dharti'', part of the Shanaakht festival at the Karachi Arts Council.
He spoke out against the imposition of emergency regulations in November 2007 by starting an "art protest" movementBarker, Kim "Youth rebellion is spreading" ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
'', 13 January 2008. Retrieved 26 February 2008.—spray-stencilling
graffiti
Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
of an "eject" symbol of a red triangle over a red rectangle, an image which has now become widespread in Karachi. Butt said it was a representation to:
He was caught on two occasions and claimed it was school art project work. He says that people's dignity has been overtaken by the predominant social and economic power of the military.
While Butt increasingly came to view public political art as central to his art practice, he continued painting on canvas. Butt publicly and openly identified himself as gay even in the face of social pressure to avoid doing so. Nevertheless, he was ambivalent about being viewed as a "gay artist" preferring to describe himself as an "artist who happened to be gay." Much of Butt's art practice, including his public art, explored themes of gender, sexuality and masculinity and the male physique. He described Pakistani attitudes to homosexuality in these words:
"Pakistanis are generally tolerant of homosexuality but don't like to bring sexual politics into public. Men and women engage in homosexual acts without necessarily identifying themselves as 'gay'. However, western ideas sexuality do shape the identity and cultural practices of a growing middle-class 'gay' community."
He lived in Karachi's affluent Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood with his parents.
Death
Asim Butt died on 15 January 2010, a news report stating that he had committed suicide by
hanging
Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...