Collection
About
AAN Collection
Believed to be the largest and most comprehensive collection of Pakistan visual art to date, the AAN collection is a private collection of Asian art primarily focussed on Pakistani Modern & Contemporary art
The AAN Collection comprises of over 800 works of art ranging from 3rd Century Gandhara sculptures to 17th Century Mughal miniatures to contemporary artworks by artists such as Shahzia Sikander, Ai WeiWei, Takashi Murakami, Imran Qureshi, Rashid Rana, Aisha Khalid and Zhang Xiaogang.
Works from the collection have been part of major exhibitions at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, Belvedere Museum Vienna, Singapore Art Museum, Asia Society Museum Hong Kong, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum Michigan, The Aga Khan Museum Toronto, The Venice Biennial, The Sharjah Biennial, The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, MAXXI Museum in Rome amongst others. AAN Collection is the only contemporary art institution in Pakistan to partner with Google Arts & Culture to exhibit Pakistani art in the digital realm.
Medium was never a barrier for the collectors. They bought their first video installation by a contemporary artist more than ten years ago, when video was a very new medium especially in South Asia. There are works in every possible medium including, wood, schist, granite, steel, linen, paper, canvas, photography, found objects, gold, velvet, silk, silver as well as sound, digital pieces and more. Similarly, size also poses no barrier. The scale of Desperately Seeking Paradise, a gargantuan sculpture by Rashid Rana is one such example. The miniature album ’Page To Page’ by Aisha Khalid also would be considered difficult to collect as it cannot be framed; it has to be enjoyed by viewing it in one’s hands. It is in the form of a codex and is composed of twenty two paintings bound together in the form of a miniature manuscript. As is Parallax, a thirty-six feet, three channel video installation by Shahzia Sikander, which can only be shown in museums and public institutions. If the narrative is compelling, the medium and size pose no challenge.