Last Updated on 1 year by Sophia
Introduction
Indian-American artist Zarina Hashmi (1937–2020) was renowned for her spare prints, drawings, and sculptures. Themes of home, displacement, borders, voyage, and memory were frequently tackled in her art.
Hashmi was raised in Aligarh, India, and attended the Aligarh Muslim University to study mathematics. She relocated to Bangkok after receiving her degree and studied woodblock printing there. She next relocated to Paris, where she attended Atelier 17 to study intaglio under Stanley William Hayter.
Before relocating to New York City in 1975, Hashmi resided in India for several years after returning there in 1968. She kept producing prints, but she also started experimenting with other mediums, including installation, sculpture, and drawing.
Hashmi’s art is distinguished by its clarity and use of geometric shapes. She frequently utilised handmade paper, puncturing, scratching, or sewing it. She frequently employed Urdu text in her work to examine her feeling of identity as an Indian Muslim woman.
Worldwide solo and group exhibitions have featured Hashmi’s artwork. Major institutions, such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern, have representations of her in their collections.
Hashmi’s writing has received recognition for its aesthetic appeal, emotional impact, and investigation of challenging subjects. She was a key player in the evolution of Indian and American art, and her contributions are still felt today.
Among Zarina Hashmi’s best-known works are:
- Home is a Foreign Place (1976), a collection of 36 woodblock prints by an Indian Muslim woman who lived abroad, addresses the artist’s sense of exile.
- These Cities Blotted into the Wilderness, a series of intaglio prints from 1982, shows how cities are destroyed during battle.
- Countries (1985): This collection of silkscreen prints examines international boundaries and how they are frequently arbitrary and artificial.
- A thin line divides two sheets of paper, one black and one white, in the sculpture Dividing Line from 1990. The partition of India in 1947, which led to the creation of Pakistan, is symbolised by the artwork.
The advancement of Indian and American art has been significantly influenced by Zarina Hashmi’s work. Her work helped make Indian art more widely known since she was a pioneer in the use of minimalism in Indian art. Her art is noteworthy for exploring difficult concepts like home, displacement, borders, and memory.
FAQs
Q1. What was Zarina Hashmi known for?
Ans: Zarina Hashmi was well renowned for her simple sculptures, prints, and drawings. Themes of home, displacement, borders, voyage, and memory were frequently tackled in her art.
Q2. What art forms did Zarina Hashmi work with?
Ans: Work by Zarina Hashmi included sculpture, printmaking, and drawing. Her woodblock prints, for which she was best known, frequently explored themes of home and displacement.
Q3. What movement was Zarina Hashmi associated with?
Ans: The minimal movement was linked to Zarina Hashmi. A style of art known as minimalism places a strong emphasis on simplicity and abstraction. With her frequent use of geometric forms and her emphasis on the crucial components of a composition, Hashmi’s work frequently mirrored these characteristics.
Q4. What did Zarina Hashmi’s work emphasize?
Ans: The emphasis on abstract and geometric shapes in Zarina Hashmi’s work was intended to elicit a spiritual response from the observer. She frequently utilised handmade paper, puncturing, scratching, or sewing it. She frequently employed Urdu text in her work to examine her own feeling of identity as an Indian Muslim woman.
Q5. Where can one acquire artworks by Zarina Hashmi?
Ans: Major institutions all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Tate Modern, have collections of Zarina Hashmi’s works of art. Additionally, her artwork can be purchased from galleries and internet merchants.