A rt movements — like newborn babies — are baptised in multiple ways: some by intention or chance; some out of affection, others as a result of contempt or ridicule. Often, the art of the past is classified into categories much later, in terms such as Gothic, Romanesque, Renaissance, Neoclassicism and Romanticism. But with the dawn of the modern era, naming occurred in real time, often by the artists or critics of that period.
Realism was adopted by Gustave Courbet “when exhibiting his own work, even though he shunned labels.” Impressionism was first mentioned in a derogatory tone by a “hostile art critic..
. in response to Claude Monet’s painting Impression: Sunrise .” Likewise, Cubism became a way to describe a certain body of work after “Matisse told the critic Louis Vauxcelles that ‘Braque has just sent a painting made of small cubes.
’” Similarly, the British art critic Lawrence Alloway wrote about the new art of the ’60s as Pop Art, picking the word “Pop” from the cover of a tennis racket in Richard Hamilton’s collage Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing? In a 1965 essay, Alloway notes: “The term ‘Pop art’ has been popular this year, welcomed by critics who think that the use of a slogan will confer awareness on their sluggish prose, and by dealers who always prefer a trend to a single artist.” In Pakistan too, one encounters a similar tendency, with the description of three distinct art movements: Lah.