Volume 40 - Number 1 - January/February 2009

Viewpoint (Detail) By Aisha Khalid (b. 1972), 2008 Watercolour, glue and paper Site-specific installation view at `Living Traditions', Queen's Palace, Bagh-e-Babur, Kabul, 2008 Variable dimensions (Photography by Alice Martina) This issue, our 435th, marks our 40th anniversary. Founded in 1970 as a journal on Asian culture, art and travel, Orientations began to focus solely on Asian art in 1981. Since then, we have successfully responded to the interests of collectors, while providing a platform for new research and information from museums and the academic world. Our coverage and analysis of the art market continues to provide insights into the latest prices and collecting trends. Like our first contemporary Chinese art issue in July 1992 and our more recent June 2007 issue on modern and contemporary Asian art, our January/February issue is an example of our continued quest to break new ground. The authors take a critical look at Asian contemporary art. Sook-Kyung Lee discusses a selection of Korean artworks that reflect the view of reality as something fabricated. Hammad Nasar looks at innovating through tradition and the art of the everyday in Pakistan. Matthew Larking reveals that Japanese contemporary art bracketed as nihonga does not in fact deviate from ‘tradition’. Alonzo Emery explores Western criticism of Chinese contemporary art in two very different treatments, while Wu Hung examines four artists’ responses to the Three Gorges Project. We also interview Judith Neilson, who recently opened a museum of contemporary Chinese art in Sydney, and Anurag Khanna, who collects Indian and Pakistan art. We thank the specialists who have contributed to the success of Orientations, and our readers and advertisers for their support.