Zarina Hashmi (16 July 1937 – 25 April 2020), known professionally as Zarina, was an Indian-American artist and printmaker based in New York City. Her work spans drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. Associated with the

Minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

movement, her work utilized abstract and geometric forms in order to evoke a spiritual reaction from the viewer.

Biography

Born Zarina Rashid on 16 July 1937 in

Aligarh Aligarh (; formerly known as Allygarh, and Kol) is a city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Aligarh district, and lies northwest of state capital Lucknow and approximately southeast of the capita ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

to Sheikh Abdur Rashid, faculty at

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

, and Fahmida Begum, a homemaker, Zarina earned a degree in mathematics, BS (honours) from the Aligarh Muslim University in 1958. She then studied variety of printmaking methods in Thailand, and at ''Atelier 17'' studio in Paris, apprenticing to

Stanley William Hayter Stanley William Hayter (27 December 1901 – 4 May 1988) was an English painter and printmaker associated in the 1930s with surrealism and from 1940 onward with abstract expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers of ...

, and with printmaker

Tōshi Yoshida was a Japanese printmaking artist associated with the '' sōsaku-hanga'' movement, and son of '' shin-hanga'' artist Hiroshi Yoshida. Childhood One of Yoshida's legs was paralysed during his early childhood. Not being able to attend school, ...

in Tokyo, Japan. She lived and worked in New York City. During the 1980s, Zarina served as a board member of the

New York Feminist Art Institute New York Feminist Art Institute (NYFAI) was founded in 1979 (to 1990) by women artists, educators and professionals. NYFAI offered workshops and classes, held performances and exhibitions and special events that contributed to the political and cu ...

and an instructor of papermaking workshops at the affiliated Women's Center for Learning. While on the editorial board of the feminist art journal ''

Heresies Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

'', she contributed to the "Third World Women" issue. Zarina died in London from complications of

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

on 25 April 2020.

Artistry

Zarina's art was informed by her identity as a

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

-born Indian woman, as well as a lifetime spent traveling from place to place. She used visual elements from Islamic religious decoration, especially the regular geometry commonly found in

Islamic architecture Islamic architecture comprises the architectural styles of buildings associated with Islam. It encompasses both secular and religious styles from the early history of Islam to the present day. The Islamic world encompasses a wide geographic ar ...

. The abstract and spare geometric style of her early works has been compared to that of minimalists such as

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

. Zarina's work explored the concept of home as a fluid, abstract space that transcends physicality or location. Her work often featured symbols that call to mind such ideas as movement, diaspora, exile. For example, woodblock print ''Paper Like Skin'' depicts a thin black line meandering upward across a white background, dividing the page from the bottom right corner to the top left corner. The line possesses a cartographic quality that, in its winding and angular division of the page, suggests a border between two places, or perhaps a

topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sci ...

chart of a journey that is yet unfinished.

Awards and fellowships

* 2007: Residency, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia * 2006: Residency, Montalvo Art Centre, Saratoga, California * 2002: Residency, William College, Williamstown, Massachusetts * 1994: Residency, Art-Omi, Omi, New York * 1991: Residency, Womens Studio Workshop, Rosendale, New York * 1990: Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant, New York foundation of the arts fellowship * 1989: International Biennial of Prints, Bhopal, India (Grand Prize) * 1985: New York Foundation for the arts Fellowship, New York * 1984: Printmaking Workshop Fellowship, New York * 1974: Japan Foundation Fellowship, Tokyo * 1969: President's Award for Printmaking, India

Solo exhibitions

Selected exhibitions

Zarina was one of four artists/artist-groups to represent India in its first entry at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 2011. The

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

organized the first retrospective of her work in 2012. Entitled ''Zarina: Paper Like Skin,'' the exhibition traveled to the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

and the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

. During the 2017–18 academic year Zarina was the Artist-in-Residence at the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

. The residency culminated in a solo exhibition, ''Zarina: Dark Roads'' (6 October 2017 – 2 February 2018) and a publication, ''Directions to My House''. Examples of her work are in the permanent collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

, and the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

References

External links

Zarina's Website

images of Zarina's work
at Luhring Augustine Gallery, New York
Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India

Jeanne Jaeger Bucher, Paris, France
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zarina 1937 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American women artists 20th-century Indian women artists 21st-century Indian women artists 21st-century American women artists Indian printers Indian lithographers People from Aligarh Indian art critics Indian women critics American women artists of Indian descent American women printmakers Artists from New York City Indian emigrants to the United States 21st-century Indian Muslims American Muslims Muslim artists Women artists from Uttar Pradesh Women lithographers