The starting point of this article is to discuss the orientation to a ‘new’ form for Westerners, which held the heritage of a different geography and culture – ‘miniature’, in the contemporary art scene focused on West and based upon Western values. 'Miniature' is a branch of book arts, one of the important branches of 'Islamic art', which is a problematic concept that Western art historiography classifies with its orientalist and reductive attitude. Today, 'miniature' is accepted as a term used and even featured in contemporary practices. It cannot be said that the tradition of miniature art and its production continue uninterruptedly in most of the Islamic countries. However, even though they were separated as different states since 1971, the strong cultural ties and traditional art production of South Asian countries have continued. In 1990s, Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander, who completed traditional miniature education and used the language of contemporary art in her works, reunited the Western/'contemporary' with the traditional and Islamic 'miniature'. Within the scope of this paper, the meeting of 'contemporary' and 'miniature' was examined through Sikander's first miniature work and her selected subsequent artworks.
Keywords: Shahzia Sikander, Miniature, Islamic Art, Middle Eastern Art, Art of Pakistan